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Resource and Environmental Management
Student planner advances waste management on Vancouver Island on summer co-op
While Vancouver Island is a common summer vacation destination for many British Columbians, 丁香园AV Resource and Environmental Management (REM) Planning student Mara Ignacio is spending her summer on the Island gaining new perspectives and work experience on co-op with Comox Valley Regional District.
She has taken on the role of project management and policy student with the Comox-Strathcona Waste Management Service, an entity of the Comox Valley Regional District, which oversees the management of solid waste for the entire Comox Valley and Strathcona Regional Districts. Here, she assists the team with the development of the new recycling depot on Quadra Island and with policy implementation to better manage the constant creation of waste throughout the CSWM service area.
鈥淟and and airspace are extremely valuable resources, and a large percentage of the items that go into the landfill could be redirected into something else like recycling, reuse, or reprocessing/recovery, like organics,鈥� says Ignacio. 鈥淧roviding accessibility to communities by building recycling depots or implementing policies that create incentives to properly sort waste will not only preserve the environment but save taxpayers from using up valuable airspace for things that aren鈥檛 truly garbage.鈥�
From afar, a connection between resource and waste management might seem like a stretch to some. Ignacio would have to disagree.
鈥淚n REM, I find that a lot of what we focus on is preservation and conservation, however as humans, we will all inevitably create waste. Resource management also includes planning for this waste to be diverted, reused, recycled or properly treated and disposed of to have as little impact on our environment as possible.鈥�
As she tries her hand at multiple aspects of the field through this placement, Ignacio leans on course concepts like data and policy analysis to advance her projects while gaining insights that are hard to come by in lecture halls.
鈥淕oing into this major I had expected many things to be more straightforward, and while my intentions to go into planning have not changed, my knowledge on how local governments work, and what services they oversee, has,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 can now more easily define where there are overlaps in jurisdiction when it comes to regional work, and municipal work, and a little bit of provincial work. They all work hand in hand to help one another to ensure that we are serving the community.鈥�
While her co-op work has deepened her understanding of local government and waste management, the experience has also been a journey of personal growth. Not only did Ignacio take on this role, she also relocated to a new city on her own for the summer. While daunting, she viewed relocating as a bonus and as an opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.
鈥淭he change in environment has allowed me to see nature and planning in a different way than I would have in Metro Vancouver, with a much larger population and communities to serve,鈥� she says.
The position was a little different than what Ignacio originally would have imagined she would be doing as part of the Planning program, but she鈥檚 glad she looked outside of typical titles and encourages other students to do the same.
鈥淚 would say to not be afraid to look at positions that might be out of line with what you had planned for; though my title wasn鈥檛 鈥榩lanning student鈥� it still gave me a very valuable experience related to planning, and how local government works,鈥� she says.