Greenest City sets a hard, measurable target for waste reduction

Mayor Gregor Robertson's Greenest City Action Team delivered a tough but realistic ten year action plan to Council this week.

In adopting the GCAT recommendations, Council has committed the city to a 2020 target of "40 percent reduction in solid waste per-capita going to landfill or incinerator."

GCAT Co-Chair David Boyd told me at the Council meeting that the baseline year for that reduction will be 2007. According to the 2007 Vancouver Landfill Annual Report, our solid waste in that year was 634,844 tonnes. With a 40% reduction, barring a huge influx of population, we will send only 381,000 tonnes of waste to the landfill in 2020.

Along with cutting the sheer volume of waste, we're going to get serious about hazardous wastes, compostable organics (source of potent GHG methane and toxic leachate) and "symbolic sources of trash and litter" such as plastic bags and styrofoam.

Public ready for aggressive waste reduction measures, despite cost

In the first of its "Spring Series" of public consultations on waste, Metro Vancouver staff heard loud and clear that waste reduction is a top priority, despite the cost.

The first public meeting was held on April 1st in Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini's backyard. Metro staff kept emphasizing to the audience that the more aggressively we try to reduce our waste, the more it will cost us.

Undeterred, the 40 - 50 members of the public who showed up for the meeting voted at the end of the evening in support of the most ambitious diversion targets.

In an electronic vote, over 70% of the participants voted for diversion targets higher than the 70% target set by Metro Vancouver in its draft waste management plan.

The next meeting will be on the North Shore. It will happen on April 22, 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM at the Eagles Banquet Hall, 170 West 3rd Street, North Vancouver. Go to the Metro website to register or submit your views.