Archives for November 26, 2020

Waste composition study conducted at Campbell Mountain Landfill

The Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) is conducting a waste composition study at Campbell Mountain Landfill this week. Working with the Regional District of Central Okanagan (RDCO), the RDOS hired Tetra Tech to conduct the study. Sorters will be sampling residential and commercial waste collected across the region. The sampling will help staff understand the type of waste coming to landfills.

The RDOS, member municipalities and various provincial groups provide recycling programs and the sampling will provide insights into how successful these programs are. Compost sites for food waste are also being considered. “Landfills, compost sites and curbside collection programs cost millions of dollars,” says
RDOS Chair Karla Kozakevich. “Learning which materials can be diverted will help the RDOS design and better manage the landfill and future compost sites.”

The RDCO is conducting a matching study at the Glenmore Landfill in Kelowna. The results will be compared to prior studies done at the landfill to look for potential changes in waste generation due to COVID-19.

The results will also be compared to waste composition studies that have been conducted across BC. A second waste composition study will be conducted this spring to look for seasonal differences. The final report will be finalized June 2021.

Hear the whisper of the rain drops
Blowing soft against the window

And make believe you love me
One more time
For the good times

I’ll get along
You’ll find another
And I’ll be here

Kris Kristofferson

sung by the great Ray Price

Such as it is, the Holiday Season is about to begin. Their are a series of different approaches to it and in the last few years no real start time. There are the revelers who look forward to the season, decorating their homes and flooding facebook with their joy.

Then there are mild cases of BA Humbug. The holiday rule Nazis some call them. They patrol to ensure Nativity Scenes are on private property only. Those who want to determine what is acceptable and what is not. Some crusade against outdoor decorations before Remembrance Day.

With the advent of social media there is the push to say Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays and insinuate there is an effort to persecute those who say Merry Christmas. There is some mysterious dark force behind the promotion of Happy Holidays they hint, and end with “I say Merry Christmas and you should too.” this is going to enlighten some confuse others and put a wet blanket on those who hint at some conspiracy or dark force and as some characterize it We are to use Happy Holidays so we don’t offend immigrants of one sect or another.

So, where and when did the Merry Christmas—Happy Holiday controversy begin? It will surprise many. During the 1500’s the old English word morphed into the word Christmas and from there Merry Christmas became the traditional greeting. But there is more to this than meets the eye. Before rendering the best saved for last, lets explore how we got into the war of words.

As with everything else our society has become polarized, our social views, our politics and even our economics. The more conservative voices tend to be more faith based and cling to tradition, where as those in the makeup of more broader based liberal view tend to say Happy Holidays. This overview was part of a survey from 2016 conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute. Even in the polarized world we have there is no evidence of a sinister plot by anyone.

So what is the history behind the two greetings that are to bring greetings of hope and joy that become the words of angst. Here is the first curve ball. Remember I mentioned the greeting Merry Christmas was adapted from an old English word? That word was Cristes Maesse. Or as we would say, The Mass of Christ. These terms go back in Old English to the year 1038. So, Merry Christmas is the official greeting right? Well not so fast there is more. Ready for a head spinner?

The word Holiday arrived in the 1500’s and it came from the Old English word “hailiday”which came from the word “haligdaed” and that word meant Holy Day.

But wait for both sides being right and wrong there is more. In more recent times there is a more modern history of how we came to be yelling rejected greetings as polarized insults.

So how and why did Happy Holidays become popular? Look back down the road of history to 1863 when the words were prominently displayed in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In the twentieth century Happy Holidays were connected to gift giving of tobacco products by RJ Reynolds to promote Winston Salem Tobacco products as presents. Happy Holidays morphed into “Seasons Greeting” in the 1940’s primarily promoting Camel cigarettes.

By the late forties seasons greetings, happy holidays and Merry Christmas came with Coca-Cola Santa Clause, elves, Christmas Trees and all the glitz and glitter we can stuff into a few weeks.

So Merry Christmas stands for the Holy Greeting of the season. Happy Holidays comes from Holy Days and in some traditions it is the meaning of Advent and ends with the Epiphany.

So before we get our ugly Christmas Sweater in a knot, you are all right even if you don’t know you’re right. So while you contemplate this information I am going to open my Christmas Holiday fashion box with everything from my Santa Hat my Grinch T Shirt, Elf Slippers and my prized Merry Christmas From Folsom Prison pullover sweater and get in the spirit of whatever greeting you address me with.

Fred Steele

From Vancouver Sun

Stephanie Higginson, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, doesn’t see any benefit to changing the length of the winter break to keep kids out of schools, whether that involves remote learning or simply a longer vacation.

“Despite the rise in cases in our general population right now, schools are actually very, very safe places for our students and our staff to be,” Higginson said.

“There’s a very good layer of protection, our safety plans are working. It’s when we start gathering in places where there are no safety plans that COVID is being transmitted in B.C. So what that tells me is that our schools are safe, our plans are working and that we don’t need to consider interrupting the face-to-face instruction that our kids are getting.”

During a briefing last week, Higginson said she was told that since schools opened in September there had been only 12 cases of in-school transmission inB.C, even though 650,000 to 700,000 people are involved in the Kindergarten to Grade 12 system every day.

Instead of adding to school safety plans, Higginson said, it’s important to focus on making sure that the existing plans are being implemented consistently, “because they’re working.”

Reduced winter hours at RDOS landfills starting December 2020

Starting December 2020 and running through the end of February 2021, landfills in Penticton, Oliver, Okanagan Falls and Keremeos will have reduced winter hours.

All Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) landfills will be closed on statutory holidays and Boxing Day.

The Oliver Landfill opens at a later time on weekdays in winter. From December 1st to the end of February the Oliver Landfill is open Noon to 3:45 pm on weekdays and 10 am to 3:45 pm on Saturday.

The Okanagan Falls Landfill will be closed Saturdays over winter but remains open from 10:00 am to 1:45 pm on weekdays.