About Buddy

Click below for articles featuring Buddy and Gibsons Recycling Depot:

Biography:

In 1970, I was accepted into one of the first Social Enterprises in Canada. That year, the Bank of Montreal started The Bank of Montreal Youth Project. As a 17 year old kid who had little education and focus, I was lucky to get in. This one thing changed the course of my life. Each student was required to develop their own individual presentation on something that we cared deeply about. I formed a chapter of S.T.O.P. (Society To Overcome Pollution).

BMO Youth Project Graduation 1971 - Buddy is at the far left of the bottom row.

In 1976, I worked at the Montreal Olympics, while I attended Dawson College. Our campus was a pig pen. Back then Tiny Tim, a ukulele playing nerd was a regular on Johnny Carson. I formed a campus group called “Tidy Tim” and we became the clean and recycling freaks of our school.

In 1978, I was working for Canadian Pacific Express as a driver. An opportunity came up for me to come West as Calgary was opening a terminal. Though drivers were not transferred, my supervisor put in a good word and off I went to work in Calgary.

The next year I was promoted as we expanded into Edmonton. I became the Manager of the new Edmonton terminal. Shortly after that, I was transferred back to Calgary, as the Area manager was promoted to Toronto. I became the Area Manager for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg.

Two months after my promotion, our parent company went on strike. We had to open up 11 new terminals in the four Western Provinces in a matter of weeks. This was my baptism into the crazy world of the transport industry. Needless to say, I was able to start up the 11 terminals and my field of expertise is property and building acquisition, staffing and securing trucks and the support infrastructure, such as fuel, maintenance etc… to facilitate a smooth operation.

Less then 2 years later I was promoted to the Toronto facility. This was our largest terminal in Canada with much labour unrest there. I developed a very strong relationship with the Union leadership and we eventually worked through the problems. We became the most efficient terminal in Canada and the relationship between management and union was 100% better once we opened up the communication lines.

I longed for the West so I resigned and moved to Vancouver. I started with Smithrite Disposal in the early 80’s while I started my own record store called Breeze Records, on Denman Street in 1983. I learned a lot with Smithrite as well as from owning my own business. Our little store became quite successful. In 1985 we became the Official Supplier of Music for the Rick Hanson Man in Motion Around the World Tour. We held a benefit dance and raised over $4,000 for them.

In 1985, I purchased my own property on Gambier Island. In 1986 I resigned from Smithrite and started my own Portable Sawmill business, sawmilling people’s trees on their land to build them homes and supply them with lumber from their own trees. I still had the record shop and also in 1986, we painted our Chief Seattle mural on the side of our store on Denman St. It was a tourist attraction. The statement is somewhat controversial but the message can not be denied. “Man did not weave the web of life, he is but a strand in it! What ever he does to the web he does to himself”. We were on the front page of the Westender Newspaper photographed next to our mural.



We eventually sold our record business and with the profits, I purchased a new sawmill and worked full time at creating habitats for people who hired me to cut their trees into lumber for their homes.

In 2001, I started Gibsons Disposal and moved to Gibsons. Shortly after that I started the award winning Gibsons Recycling Depot. We are developing into one of BC’s first Resource Recovery Facilities. We were the first recycling depot to start Styrofoam Recycling. Our goal now is to start recycling programs for Mattress, Textile, Glass and Community Garden and Composting programs for our depot.

What I have learned over the years is that it takes no talent to quit and be mediocre. Our wonderful community, the Sunshine Coast BC, is without a doubt the best place I have ever lived. As global warming becomes a critical issue in everyone’s life, I can envision everyone pulling together to make our community the greenest in Canada. Producers and manufacturers, retailers, local government, individuals, not for profits and recycling professionals pulling in the same direction is the only way to succeed at this. I see this as an easy challenge, compared to what I have done earlier in my life.

If Chief Seattle recognized in 1854, before the congress of the United States that we were treating the land like a toilet and Rick Hanson can wheel chair around the entire planet, my goodness, becoming the first community in BC to become Zero Waste should be simple. I think it is!

Buddy Boyd
Gibsons Recycling Depot Ltd.
Gibsons BC
Canada

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