Our story

Before GIRR there was a Recycling Station at the “old dump”, which was run by the Galiano Club. Jim Scoones and John Sibbald were the lead hands and were supported by a group of very committed volunteers. In 1991, forestry company Macmillan Bloedel sold the land and left the community without a dump or recycling station. The Galiano Club had its hands full with the fallout from the dump site and so a dedicated group of community members came together to create a Society with a mandate of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: GIRR was born (incorporated) in 1992. When GIRR was 10 years old, the Society bought the present land and moved its full operation to its new home and celebrated with a Grand Opening in July 2002.

The idea of a ReDirectory was initiated to fulfill the “reuse” part of the GIRR mission. A successful Gaming Grant was written in 2004, and on Earth Day 2005 our ReDirectory held its official Open House. The ReDirectory’s mandate is to facilitate the re-use of our community’s household items, magazines and books. It has become a social hub and a source of essentials for anyone on a budget setting up a household; a must visit for tourists and a treasure trove for everyone on Galiano.

GIRR celebrated its 30 year anniversary in 2022 and has annually diverted as much as 98 tonnes of “waste” from the landfill and “redirected” thousands of items to new homes. Can you imagine what Galiano would look like today without GIRR? Local islander, Nadia Krebs wrote a fantastic short history of GIRR and, along with the photos from the early days, you can get an idea of the dedication, commitment and hard work that directed GIRR to its present operations.

GALIANO ISLAND RECYCLING RESOURCES SOCIETY

Galiano Island Recycling Resources Society (GIRR) strives to provide our community and its visitors with a recycling program that goes above and beyond expectations. Currently, through funding from the CRD, GIRR offers recycling services equivalent to the Victoria curbside blue box program. With the support of our Galiano memberships and donations, GIRR also offers an impressive expanded recycling depot that rivals any in BC. Our ReDirectory remains a constant source of treasures, unique finds and household necessities all available by donation.

Our Mission: To manage and recycle the waste stream on Galiano through reduction, recover of recyclable materials and reuse.