President Jackie chaired the meeting. Darlene Compagnon, guest of prospective corporate member Donna, was welcomed.

 On September 7th a meeting was held to discuss arrangements for the fundraiser to be held in conjunction with Xavier House. Jackie spoke about this and different businesses that will be involved. Details about this weekly fundraiser will be posted on Facebook.   Rotarians will be asked to help with the running of this fundraiser with more details to follow. 

A $500 donation from the Corner Brook Rotary Club will be made to the Western Memorial Fundraiser Telethon with Bernd presenting the cheque.

The guest Thursday Sept 21^st will be Robert Thomas who is the Tourism Experience Coordinator for the Newfoundland and Labrador Indigenous Tourism Association, Corner Brook.

Guest presenter, Lynn Howse was introduced by program-chair Bernd. Lynn is the Regional Outreach Officer (ROO) for Western Regional Waste Management (WRWM).  She began her career in Waste Management with this position in 2019. Her responsibilities include informing residents and businesses in Western Newfoundland on recycling and assisting in the development of recycling strategies. 

Lynn began her presentation by an interactive activity. She had several items on the screen including a battery, half empty ketchup bottle, plastic container, paint can plus other items. Looking at a picture of each item Rotarians were asked how each item would be discarded and would it go in a clear plastic bag as garbage or a blue bag for recycling and if neither how should it be disposed. The chat that followed showed that there were some items everyone knew could be recycled but there were others were there were different opinions.

Lynn passed out a booklet -Sort it Western which is a Business and Residential Sorting Guide which helped with the decision making.

Lynn continued her presentation by looking at the Western disposal process at Wild Cove and how the general types of garbage such as tyres, appliances, bulk items, and general items are sorted and how the blue bag recyclable garbage is dealt with.  It was interesting to find out what happens to pop and wine bottles and see how after being crushed into ‘diamonds ‘and then melted down they are sent outside the area to be recycled into new products. 

An audit is developed by checking a set number of household recyclable and general garbage on a regular basis to find out how well the current program is doing.

 Businesses help by having two bins for general garbage and recyclables plus programs are developed for schools.

 Lynn answered questions at the end of her presentation. One question involved plastic containers and how to know if they are recyclable. This can change depending on manufacturing changes but at the moment by looking at the number on the base of a container if it is 1,2 or 5 then the container can be recycled.

Paula thanked Lynn for her interesting and informative talk before the meeting was adjourned.