Bottle Drive

What?

We typically have two bottle drives a year and all Sections participate. The one just after New Years goes towards general revenue and the one in the spring one typically goes towards a Jamboree Fund for the next Provincial or Canadian Jamboree. The spring one is usually managed by the Scouts and is smaller as not all Sections necessarily participate.

Flyers are distributed door to door a week or so ahead of the pickup. They typically ask residents to put out a bag with the flyer taped to it.

We meet at Herbert Spencer School and each vehicle takes a route and a couple of kids. It is very important to knock on every door and explain that you are collecting bottles and cans for Scouts. Even though we distribute the flyers, most of the people ignore the flyer or forget to put out a bag of cans. Some people even make a cash donation on the spot and often collect $50-$100 cash donations.

The bottles are returned to the school parking lot where a team sorts them into large bins – alcohol vs. non-alcohol. As the bins of bottle are extremely heavy, it is good to sort bottles vs. cans also. The Sapperton Return-It Depot supplies the bins, picks them up, counts them and gives us a cheque for a nominal fee of about $100. We usually collect enough bottles to fill in the order of 20-25 bins, though in Jan 2017, we managed 29 bins in one day. In the past we have used other companies with no fee, but you need to sort all the items by type and count them into bags. It takes forever and the nominal fee is well worth it!

Where?

On Saturday, the sorting occurs in the underground parking lot of Herbert Spencer School. On both Saturday and Sunday, we have a small team at the Canada Games Pool Parking lot (near the firehall) collecting and sorting.

To book the Herbert Spencer School parking area, email Leah at the School District at facilityrentals@sd40.bc.ca or call her at 604-517-6324. In the past, we have had to get permission from Doug Smith at the Scouts office. However, the last time we used the Herbert Spencer parking area, Leah said we didn't need to show our certificate of insurance again, since we were also using the gym at Glenbrook. If we don't need to show the certificate of insurance, the process is much simpler.

Someone will need to pick up the key at the school before the school closes for Christmas. The staff there are accustomed to the process - just go to the school office and they normally give you a key with a huge key chain.

Return-It Depot

Tracie Sung is the manager at the Sapperton Return-It Depot. Her email is rmrc200@yahoo.com or she can be reached at main number at (604) 523-9699 or (604) 619-7375 cell. Ray also has worked at the Sapperton Return-It Depot for a long time and he normally drives the truck that does our pick-ups and drop-offs. His cell number is (778) 788-9200.

We need to contact them early in the year, as one year our preferred date was unavailable when we left the decision until late November. It is suggested that we confirm with them as soon as we decide on a date, certainly by September.

Get them to drop off at least 30 bins and at least 15 pallets at 9:00AM on Saturday. Get them to come and collect the bins any time after 3:00PM on Saturday and Sunday. We can put the bins and pallets for Sunday in the trailer and leave the locked trailer in the Canada Games Pool parking lot overnight.

Return-it Express

We have set up an account with Return-It Express where you can drop a bag of bottles and cans off and it will be credited to the 12th New Westminster Scouting Group’s Account. This works at any Return-It Express location in B.C.

Simply pack your returnables in a clear plastic bag, go into any Return-It Depot with the Express option, use the phone number 604-512-4130 at the kiosk, print out the label(s) and drop off the bags.

They will count the bottles and cans, and give us a full refund for them.

The Sapperton location (79 Braid Street) and Queensborough (409 Boyne Street) are the two New Westminster location with the Express option. There is also one on the north side of Lougheed Highway in Coquitlam just west of IKEA at 1045A Lougheed Highway.

Firefighters

For the last number of years, we have teamed up with the Firefighters and we collect bottles at their Christmas Tree shredding day in the Canada Games Pool parking lot from 10-3. There are not as many bottles collected at this as the regular drive (maybe six bins over 2 days). We need an adult and two youth to attend both Saturday and Sunday. We need to coordinate with the Firefighters for space there and also to piggyback on the advertising.

The contact we have used at the Fire Fighters is Alasdair Dunbar, adunbar@newwestcity.ca, (778) 384-2491 and Glen Bailey, gbailey@newwestcity.ca, (604) 617-6752. In mid-November, make contact and confirm that we will be there. The absolute deadline is Dec 15th.

They expect that we will be available and participating for both days and they really like to have youth, especially Beavers and Cubs, assisting with the donation collection. When the kids hold the boot, they tend to get more cash for the firefighters. The youth are NOT to touch the money in the boots. When we set this arrangement up, the firefighters insisted that Scouts only collect bottles and that we don't accept cash donations at the event. We have complied with that every year.

If the firefighters require that they receive a copy of Scouts insurance certificate, we need to have this sent from Doug Smith at the Scout head office. The Group Commissioner will deal with this.

On the day of the event, usually, you need to have someone get set up around 9:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings and the event closes down around 3:00 p.m. On Sunday, no need to get there until 10:00 a.m. Same 3:00 p.m. finish. Ask parents to sign up for 2-3 hour shifts for the Sunday event. We don't normally ask for sign-ups on the Saturday, as everyone comes and leaves at a random times until the routes are complete.

The firefighters have told us in the past that anyone who works at the event, kids included, is welcome to free hot dogs and pop. There is no expectation that they give a donation. This isn't always the case though.

On Sunday, we often don’t get many bottles, and we have found that simply bringing the Scout trailer and parking it there for the day and hauling the bottles to the Sapperton Return-It Depot directly is the easiest solution. In Jan 2017, we asked them to come and pick up bins from the Canada Games Pool parking lot as on Saturday there were more than expected and we had to ferry bins back and forth to the School which was a pain. We filled 4.5 bins on Sunday, so it is worth getting the Depot to come pick them up.

Advertising

Need to coordinate what routes we are doing and estimate the number of flyers to print. In the past Dave Jeffs (member of the Friends of New Westminster Scouting) has provided the printing free through Comfort Graphics or at a nominal cost. At Staples, 1100 double sided prints on coloured paper (3 flyers/sheet) costs in the order of $75.00

The flyers should be delivered door to door by our volunteers (typically Scouts, Venturers and Scouters). We have distributed the flyers via Canada Post a few times, but it is quite expensive. A few kids with their parents can cover a lot area quickly.

We need to coordinate with the firefighters to piggyback on their advertising.

Contact the Record to get into the City Pages. Email calendar@newwestrecord.ca

Call the City’s main number and ask for the person to put advertising on the sign at 6th and McBride. It is free. We ask them to keep our information up from Dec. 1 to the event and they are usually fine with that.

To put an ad in the City Page, email Ashleigh Young at ayoung@newwestcity.ca or (604) 527-4559. Suggested wording is: I'm writing with information about the 12th New Westminster Scouts bottle drive planned for Jan. xx and xx, 20xx. Could you please add this information to the City calendar on the City Website and the City Page?

January x and xx, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Location: Canada Games Pool Parking Lot
12th New Westminster Scouts Bottle Drive
Start the New Year by clearing out your holiday bottles and cans. Bring them with your Christmas tree to the New West Firefighters' Fire Safety Festival or for pickup, emailscoutsbottlepickup@live.ca. Your donation of returnables will help Scouts continue to bring adventure, outdoor experience and friendship to New Westminster youth.
Thank you!

Next bottle drive to do:

• Review the route maps and ensure the entire neighbourhoods are covered.
• Create route maps for any missing areas.
• Count the houses per route map so we know how many flyers are required.

Need someone to organize the event. This includes the following:

• Contact the Sapperton Return-It Depot and book date months in advance.
• Send a common email to all Section leaders to distribute. This can be done by ScoutTracker.
• Coordinate with the firefighters and coordinate advertising.
• Book the Herbert Spencer School parking garage to sort.
• Request insurance from Doug Smith at Scout office if required by the Fire Fighters or by Herbert Spencer School.
• Pick up the key before the Herbert Spencer School closes for Christmas.
• Decide which routes we are doing. In 2015/16 and Jan 2017, we decide on Glenbrook North, Massey Victory Heights, and Kelvin North. This worked well in 2017. In the past we have not had much luck with Queens Park or Sapperton.
• Invite the Guild to participate.
• Make two copies the maps (one to distribute flyers and one to do bottle pickup).
• Organize for advertising in the newspaper City Pages.
• Organize for advertising on the City calendar.
• Design and print the flyers
• Coordinate door-to-door flyer delivery. This is often done by the Scouts and Venturers.

Someone to bring items from the locker for the main bottle drive:

• Crab cooker, propane stove, propane tree, and propane.
• Large pots for hot chocolate and for hot dogs. Small pot for hot dogs on propane stove.
• Lighter or matches.
• Tongs, ladle and stirring spoon.
• Knife.
• Folding plastic table and at least one of the aluminum tables.
• Oven mitts.
• Washcloths and tea towels for cleanup.
• Large black garbage bags.
• Gloves for bottle sorters.
• Two filled water jugs because the tap that is there is for hot water.
• First aid kit.

Someone to bring from home:

• A couple of folding chairs from home too for the Guild members to sit on while handing out hot dogs and hot chocolate.
• Wide broom to sweep the floor.
• Hose to wash down the floor.
• Have an overall sign-in / sign-out sheet at the event so we know who attended.

Someone to bring items from the locker for the Canada Games Pool part of the bottle drive:

• One pop up shelter.
• 12th New Westminster banner with twine to tie to the trailer or shelter.
• Park the trailer at the Canada Games Pool on Sunday (use it to drive around on Saturday).
• Knife.

Someone needs to buy (<$100):

• About 100 hot dogs and buns (include some veggie dogs).
• Condiments (ketchup and mustard).
• Two large cans of Hot chocolate (usually there isn't any in the locker).
• Paper cups (usually there aren't many in the locker).
• Napkins (usually there aren't many in the locker).