Week 6: June 29 - June 30, 2007

Saltspring Refund Centre, Fleetwood Bottle Depot, Qualicum Bottle Depot, Parksville Bottle Depot, Abbotsford Bottle Depot & Sardis Bottle Depot

June 29, 2007: Saltspring Refund Centre

Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were taken, by the depot operator, on a tour through the local grocery store located next door to the Depot. They gave lots of high fives and spoke with several of the shoppers and staff. The area around the Saltspring Depot is a very tight knit community and the Depot operator was familiar with almost all of the people that they bumped into. Clearly the Depot is a central point in the community as we found that a great deal of the people that we spoke to were good recyclers and used the Depot regularly. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick made sure to give a friendly reminder about the draw and encouraged everyone to do as much recycling as possible over the summer. They also took the opportunity to give reminders about recycling the different varieties of containers while they were at it. Once they finished going through the grocery store, the depot operator was clearly impressed saying “you managed to put a smile on everyone’s face”. Return-It Man replied “hey, its all in a day’s work”.

One customer at the depot took some time to discuss some of his great recycling experiences. He told Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick that he had previously worked in a recycling plant and had been involved in other community initiatives to maintain Saltspring’s incredible beauty. As we spoke with him, he was at the Depot recycling hundreds of containers from his pizza parlour located next to the depot.

Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick went into town to walk the main drag and were approached by a photographer from the Driftwood Newspaper who asked us what they were up to. They told him all about the Depot promotion. After speaking with him, he needed to get some pictures. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick posed in some cool action sequences and the photographer loved it. He encouraged us to keep up the good work and said to check out upcoming issues for a special appearance.

Outside of one of the local coffee shops, Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick spoke with a man who obviously had his priorities straight. He explained how he had been skateboarding one evening with some friends while out camping on the Island. Unfortunately, he fell off his skateboard going down a steep hill and actually ended up breaking his clavicle. Yet, despite being injured, he still managed to remind his friends to recycle all of their containers from their camping trip and not a single container was left behind.

June 29, 2007: Fleetwood Bottle Depot

Surrey residents were able to get their weekend started with a big splash from their friendly neighborhood hero; Return-It Man. Friday afternoon brought Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick to the Fraser Highway location where a large majority of commuters were able to take in the crazy antics of our Return-It Team. Everyone was able to show their support in different ways from honking and hooting to waving their containers from the car. One family that stopped at a red light was able to pass Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick their empty containers from the car because they didn’t have enough time to stop at the depot. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick thanked them for taking the time to recycle and quickly handed them a flyer for future reference. Many local shoppers who were returning to their cars after stopping at the liquor store in the Evergreen Mall were happy to take a flyer from Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick. Although their containers were full they were still reminded to return their empty liquor and spirit bottle to the depot to win the Grand Prize BBQ.

June 30, 2007: Qualicum Bottle Depot

Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick visited the local Farmers Market which was clearly the center of attention at Qualicum Beach. Qualicum Beach is a cool laid back region with lots of friendly retired locals. The Super Sidekick got permission from the coordinator of the event to let Return-It Man walk through and mingle with the crowd. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick fit right in amongst the live jazz, dozens of displays, food vendors, fibre arts and, of course, lots of great recyclers. It was not hard to strike up a conversation as countless people flocked to Return-It Man’s side to hear what he had to say. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were sure to let everyone know the location of the depot and it was not difficult to convince everyone that recycling their beverage containers was the right thing to do. Most were inspired to get their containers to the depot as quick as they could when they heard about the draw for the grand prize BBQ.

For the second half of the shift Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick decided to visit the ever popular Qualicum Beach. The sun was shining and the whole population seemed to be in a good mood. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick took advantage of the upbeat atmosphere and reminded everyone about the depot and the great promotion that’s going on right now. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick’s message was well received and most agreed that the beach looks better without containers scattered all over the place and it is worth the effort to keep it that way.

June 30, 2007: Parksville Bottle Depot

Upon the advice of the depot staff, Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick went into the town of Parksville and made their voices heard. There were kids everywhere and they all had to come to see the recycling icon. The Return-It Man tattoos were especially popular and everyone needed to have one -even the grandparents were begging for them! Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick made a point to not hand them out too easily, making sure that only good recyclers, or those who promised to be good recyclers were allowed to have them.

Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick also went to the Parksville Beach which was even more crowded than Qualicum Beach. The Parksville Beach has an incredible playground area and there were dozens of kids and parents. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were swarmed on a number of occasions. One group of kids were celebrating a birthday party and it was a big event for them to see Return-It Man. Everyone cheered and gave their hero high fives.

At the Parksville Beach there had just been a big beach volleyball tournament and Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick met up with several of the players who were tired after a long day of intense competition. They told Return-It Man that despite being exhausted, they would never be too tired to recycle. Return-It Man was very proud of them and offered handshakes instead of high fives in consideration of their tired limbs. They appreciated the gesture and promised to visit the depot as soon as they could.

June 30, 2007: Abbotsford Bottle Depot

The Abbotsford Bottle Depot proved to be one of the most successful celebration tours to date. Not only had the owner, Kyung Chun Woo, chosen the perfect date for their event as it tied into the Berry Festival, the crowds that attended were huge! Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were able to interact with people from all over Abbotsford and they even got to dance with a few of the other mascots present. While the children waited their turn to play with the larger than life characters, Super Sidekick took this opportunity to hand out flyers to the parents and other people who were drawn to the crowd. Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick even took the time to show all the youngsters what to do with their empty single serve containers. Having bins nearby the children were able to see the difference between a garbage can and a recycling bin. After their lesson Return-It Man was gracious enough to pose for a few pics with his adoring fans.

June 30, 2007: Sardis Bottle Depot

Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were able to draw a lot of attention to the tucked away Depot in Chilliwack. Being situated off the main drag gave them a great vantage to raise awareness of the depot location and the contest taking place. Return-It Man was able to tie enough balloons to his arms so that he would create an even larger presence while not flying away at the same time. He did manage to float over to the local shopping mall to remind customers at the Save on Foods about the great prizes that they could win at their local Sardis Bottle Depot. Super Sidekick would also step up to offer a flyer in case the customers were unfamiliar with the location. All in all Return-It Man and his Super Sidekick were able to cover a lot of ground throughout the area spreading the Return-It word while keeping the Depot location energized for the big camera draw at the end of the day.