The second annual 14-day Upcycle Challenge from October 7-20!

We wanted to start by thanking all of the countless volunteers, the Vancouver Island Marine Debris Working Group and the many sponsors who have made this good work possible! You are all the true heart of restoring crucial coastal ecosystems. We would also like to acknowledge that land access was granted by many First Nations communities to the Working Group in order to clean and remove debris down the West and East Coast of Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands and residing waterways. We will be sorting material on the unceeded lands of the Coast Salish Territory.

What to bring:
- Sunhat
- Work gloves
- Snacks and Lunch
- Waterbottle
- Any music you would like to listen to (Must be family appropriate)

Hours of Operation are subject to change.
***Please continually refer to this schedule for updates***

October 7: 10am-5pm: Plastic sorting instructions and opening words from 10am-11am
October 8: 10am- 5pm
October 9: 10am- 5pm
October 11: 10am- 5pm
October 14: 10am- 5pm
October 15: 10am- 5pm
October 16: 10am- 5pm
October 18: 10am- 5pm
October 20: 10am- 5pm
***More dates and times to come

LOCATION: 8601 Main Street, Vancouver, BC

PARKING: There is available free parking on the side of the road in front of the warehouse space.

AMENITIES: There will be port-o-potties, limited water and power on site. 

FOOD: To be clear- there is no available kitchen this year on site. Please bring your lunch and snacks for the day.

FIRST AID: There will be first aid provided on site

CURRENT END OF LIFE SOLUTIONS::
- Foam and Hard Plastic Buoys: Route Blue, Vernon BC
- Buoys: Harbour Chandler, Nanaimo, BC
- Plastic PET Waterbottles: Lush Cosmetics
- Hard mixed plastics: Lush Cosmetics  
- Polystyrene (White Foam): Foam Only
- Tires: Action Tire
- Research continuation for Hard Mixed Platics: Resynergi Inc Plastic to fuel conversion
- Eurathyne Foam: Poly Research Institute

BACKGROUND
Over the spring and summer of 2017 marine debris and driftage items were recovered from the remote wilderness of Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and residing waterways. During this time hundreds of volunteers and sponsors contributed to large scale cleanup operations to remove marine debris and drfitage along the West and East coasts of Vancouver Island. Loads of debris have been transported to our new debris in-take centre located in South Vancouver. To date we have had over 8 B-Trains of material enter our grounds and have been sorting debris throughout the summer. We are estimating that by the end of the collection season we will have collected over 500 supersacks (1 cubic yard each) of materials with additional loose itmes which consist of tires, barels, pallets, hundreds of buoys, over 150 cubic yards of mixed foam, and unidentified objects. 

It is estimated that about 1/3 of the material collected from the West coast of Vancouver Island is from the devastating tragedy of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. This earthquake was registered at a magnitude of 9.0 (Mw) and reported 15,894 deaths. It is with care and respect that we help to recollect this drfitage and return some of these items back to the Japanese people. We thank the Japanese people for their previous financial gift which allowed this work to gain great momentum in British Columbia over the previous years.

It has been our upmost priority to arrange after life solutions for this debris to the best of our ability. In 2015, we were able to purchase our first plastic to fuel machine to begin converting various plastic resin codes back into a usable fuel. 

*** We will again have our demonstration plastic to fuel machine running as an example of sustainable end of life solutions to a lot of this plastic debris.*** Come watch bottle caps turn back into a light crude oil***

Current partners, allies and contributors to Canada's first marine debris upcycle centre for the 2017 season: Updates coming soon!

The generous financial gift given by the Japanese Ministry of Environment and the BC Ministry of Environment helped launch this project in 2016.

A Dish-by-Trich
A Plastic Ocean Foundation
Action Tire
Bardel Entertainment
Barnacle Babes Magazine
BC Marine Trails Network
BC Parks
Black Point Cleanup
Canada Fibers
Captain's Cove Marina
Cargill
Checleset First Nations
Clayquot Cleanup
C-Tow Marine Assistance
Denman Island Cleanup
DreamR Labs
Environmental & Emergency Services of Ucluelet
Foam Only
Grieg Seafood
Harbour Chandler
Jessica Winkler, world champion kiteboard surfer
Kingsley Trucking
Langely Recycling
Lasqueti Island Cleanup
Let's Talk Trash Team
Life Before Work
Living Oceans Society
Lush Cosmetics
Lynn Valley Lion’s Club
Parks Canada
Pitch-in Canada
Plascon
Powell River Regional District
Resynergi Inc
Route Blue
Saltery Bay Cleanup
Savoury Island Cleanup
Signal Warehousing
Surfrider Foundation Pacific Rim
Surfrider Foundation Vancouver Island
Texada Island Cleanup
Thunder Bay Cleanup
Vancouver Aquarium- Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup
Vancouver Island Marine Debris Working Group
Vancouver Island University