What should the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council be focusing on?
That’s a question we wanted to put directly to our members.
This summer, we asked SWRC members to rank five potential focus areas for our work:
- standardized recycling messaging
- contamination and illegal dumping
- food waste reduction
- composting
- mattress diversion
The response was clear: members want SWRC to put standardized recycling messaging at the top of the list.
More than half of respondents—30 out of 57—ranked standardized recycling messaging as their number one priority. When we looked at the full range of rankings, it was also the clear overall leader.
For residents, businesses and municipalities trying to make good waste reduction decisions, having clear, consistent information is essential. As a provincial organization, SWRC is in a unique position to help bring people together around that shared understanding.
The next tier of priorities was contamination/illegal dumping and food waste reduction.
These two areas were very close in the overall rankings, although members expressed their interest in slightly different ways. Contamination and illegal dumping received the most second-place votes, while food waste reduction received more first-place votes.
Both point to significant opportunities for practical, on-the-ground waste reduction work.
Contamination is costly and frustrating for recycling and waste systems, while illegal dumping remains a persistent challenge for communities across Saskatchewan. At the same time, food waste represents a huge opportunity: reducing the amount of food we waste can save money, conserve resources and reduce the amount of material going into our waste systems.
Organics and composting and mattress diversion rounded out the list.
These areas still received substantial support—indeed, almost everyone included each of the five topics somewhere in their rankings. The results don’t tell us that these issues aren’t important. Rather, they help us understand where members believe SWRC can have the greatest impact when time and resources are limited.
And that’s really the value of asking.
As an organization, we have many things we could work on. Our members help us decide what we should work on.
So, what happens next?
Join us in person to help us decide. At our fall events October 7 & 8 we will have roundtable discussions on the top three priorities. We want to know from you what meaningful change would look like for our members.
We’ll use these results from these discussions alongside our strategic priorities, staff capacity, partnerships and opportunities to shape SWRC’s work in the coming years. We won’t necessarily tackle these areas in isolation—there are obvious connections between them. Better recycling information can reduce contamination. Food waste reduction connects directly to organics.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to share your priorities.
Your responses give us a clearer picture of where our members see the greatest need—and where SWRC can put its energy to help Saskatchewan move toward a more waste-free future.
