About Earthwise

The mission of the Earthwise Society is to cultivate sustainable communities through environmental education and stewardship. We are about community, our earth, and how we act within it. We believe that:

President	Mike Schneider
Vice President	Bob Bracken
Treasurer	Stephen Lee
Secretary	Geraldine Redmond
Directors at Large	Chrystal Mihelic, Dana Miller, Kent Mullinix
Executive Director	Patricia Fleming

Earthwise Society, formerly Delta Recycling Society (DRS), began serving the community of Delta in 1979 when a group of concerned citizens formed the Delta Recycling Project. The group's aim was to provide a "conserver" alternative to our culture's throw away lifestyle. DRS became a registered society in 1982.

During the 1980s, DRS led the expansion of recycling services and depots in Delta. The success of the depots was due to partnerships with Scouts and Guides, Brownies and Cubs, Gateway House, Youth Diversion, and other groups including the Delta Municipal Council.

The society has always incorporated social sustainability in its mandate. Since the mid-1980s DRS has been involved in programs to provide job training or employment services for persons with psychiatric or other disabilities. Today, DRS Earthwise Society continues to address this mandate by providing work opportunities to individuals with employment barriers and by working to engage marginalized sectors of the community in its programs.

In 1988, DRS made recycling history by establishing the first blue box curbside collection service for recyclables in Western Canada. Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Delta Recycling Society, curbside recycling is now mainstream in most communities in the Lower Mainland, and the society has moved its focus to include a wider range of sustainability issues.

In 1995, Delta Recycling Society designed and developed a one-acre demonstration garden of sustainable landscape practices at its Brown Street recycling facility in Tilbury. The garden was the first in the Lower Mainland to offer an integrated approach to sustainable landscape education encompassing composting, water conservation, organic gardening and habitat enhancement. The 'Earthwise Garden' won the first Environmental Stewardship Award of the BC Landscape and Nursery Association in 2001. Today, the Earthwise Garden runs its programs at the new Boundary Bay Earthwise Garden.

DRS Earthwise Society became one of the founding members of the Tilbury Eco-Industrial Partnership (TEIP), joining the Advisory Committee in 2003. Today the Society functions as the committee co-chair and the TEIP project administrator.

DRS became Earthwise Society in 2005 when our focus shifted from Waste Reduction to Sustainable Living.

The Earthwise Society is a member driven Society. Members of the Earthwise Society are committed to protecting the integrity of the environment and to human rights for people with disabilities. They become ambassadors in the community by passing on information and tools received from us to their friends, neighbours and colleagues.