GFL’s Trail branch made an impact at the Trail-Rossland 2026 BC Winter Games in British Columbia by successfully diverting 89.3% of the waste they collected from landfills.
“The Games enabled us to give back to the community, support youth sports and divert waste and recycling to make the Games as close to net-zero waste as possible,” said Trail’s General Manager Kurtis Olejniczak.
To achieve this impressive diversion rate, GFL managed recycling and organics collection at six major food venues. This included the food waste, scraps and leftovers from approximately 18,000 meals prepared for over 1,400 athletes, coaches and officials over the course of the Games.
A key component of this success was a hands-on approach to education. Local GFL staff volunteered for the Games as waste screeners, educating the public volunteers about how to sort recyclables and organics to prevent garbage from contaminating the waste streams.
“Our Operations Supervisor, Rebecca Nesmith, and I travelled to different sites to educate the volunteers,” Olejniczak said. “At one site, where the totes were cross-contaminated, we took some time to manually sort the materials to maintain the integrity of the streams and work towards that net-zero goal.”
As well as overseeing GFL’s operations, Olejniczak volunteered as Chair of Environment Services on the Trail-Rossland 2026 BC Winter Games Host Society, where he helped design the sustainability plan for all the venues.
And to extend the benefit into the community, GFL partnered with a local junior hockey team, the Beaver Valley Nitehawks, who collected deposit containers such as tetra packs and milk containers to support their fundraising efforts.
“The fact that we diverted so much from the landfill is a big accomplishment for everyone who was involved,” Olejniczak said. “We were successful because everyone worked together.”
The BC Winter Games are held every two years in communities around British Columbia to develop athletes, coaches and officials in preparation for higher levels of competition, such as the Olympics.
