Vancouver launches organic waste collection program on Earth Day
April 22, 2010
With so many events meant to highlight Earth Day, our spotlight heads to Vancouver where today marks the first of a two-phase organic waste collection program. The city estimates 35 percent of garbage from single-family homes contains compostable food scraps.
Harvest Power owns and operates Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre Ltd., one of North America’s largest permitted food and yard waste composting facilities, and we are pleased to partner with the city of Vancouver in this initiative.
Beginning today, April 22, home owners and renters across the city who already receive yard trimming collection services can now add organic scraps from raw fruit and vegetables, eggshells, tea bags, coffee grounds and filters to their cart for curbside collection. The program is part of Vancouver’s larger Zero Waste initiative, which aims to reduce, re-use or recycle 70 percent of all municipal solid waste.
According to Hilary Henegar of Granville Online: “Vancouver is just the latest of several North American cities to implement an organic waste collection program, notably joining Port Coquitlam and Port Moody, who recently introduced programs of their own.”
The second phase of this city-wide program will launch next year. At that time, Vancouver will begin collecting all food scraps, including meat, fish, dairy and cereal. At that time, the program aims to reduce garbage collection to once every two weeks and maintain this more extensive organics collection weekly.
In the meantime, the city’s Web site urges residents who use a backyard composter to continue doing so as “it’s still the best way to compost since it saves on collection costs and energy use.” For instructions on how to get started, click here.
Comments
Leave a Reply
VISIT OUR WEBSITE
CONNECT WITH US
Just heard on the radio….so thrilled, I was secretly putting it into our yard waste as people are so ignorant about composting and also, using the granville island organics deposit. But be sure to be clear about ingredients. i only put raw vegetable and raw fruit, hair, tea bags, vegetable wrappings such as husks, you said toast with butter or not? and raw meat it should be very clear. I avoid all food cooked in butter, fats, cooked foods.
ANYWAYS, it will be good for the gardens so many more nutrients…and good income. Thanks
This is all wonderful except, I live in Yaletown; the most densely populated region of Canada, and along with thousands of others, live in an apartment building that does not have yard or organic waste collection services.
I strongly urge the city to expand its organic waste collection services to the hundreds of thousands of Vancouver residents living in multi-level buildings as this would greatly improve the city’s initiatives to reduce, reuse, and recycle and drastically cut down on unnecessary waste.
I’m from Toronto, Ontario originally and today, make my happy home in beautiful British Columbia. In Toronto, all high-rise buildings have implemented organic waste collection so it can be done on a grand scale!!
As a masters student at UBC and young woman with a bright future in her community, I feel passionately about the conscious steps we take together as a community toward sustainability. Together, let’s keep Vancouver beautiful for many years to come!
Thanks for listening.
Katie