The Family YMCA has an extra bounce in their step thanks to a recent grant.
The local Y was one of 29 communities and not-for-profit organizations to receive a community grant from Tire Stewardship BC.
The $30,000 will be put towards using recycled crumb rubber flooring in the newly renovated Massey Drive facility, explained YMCA resource development and communications manager Karen Cameron.
"We're pretty excited," Cameron said. "The flooring's pretty cool and a good way to be green."
Tire Stewardship BC is a not-for-society society formed to accept responsibility for the provincial scrap-tire recycling program. The funding for the society's Community Grant program comes from the advance disposal fee that each retailer remits to the group for every new tire sold.
Also known as eco fees, the money goes primarily to transporting and recycling the province's scrap tires. The fees range from $5 for passenger and light-truck tires to $35 for logger and skidder tires.
The new flooring will be placed in the YMCA's fitness area and up the stairs. "A second phase we hope to start this summer will include that kind of flooring as well," said Cameron. "We always have a budget for capital expenditures and because our facility is our largest asset, we have to to take care of it."
Cameron added the grant allows for money to be freed up from the renovation budget to be used in other programs, as well as the next phase of renovation work.
This is the second round of funding for the stewardship group with more than $556,000 passed out across the province.
"This amounts to nearly 38,000 tires that were kept out of landfills and instead were recycled for use in playgrounds, water parks and indoor and outdoor athletic facilities," said Tire Stewardship BC executive director Mike Hennessy in a press release. "In total, TSBC's Community Grant Program recycled more than 680,000 pounds of rubber tires in 2011, benefiting the environment and helping to build B.C.'s economy."
Cameron said the flooring is also a good-quality product and quite long lasting. "You always wonder where that recycling fee goes when you buy new tires. Come walk the floor at the Y and see where that recycling fee goes to," she said.
