Recycle ~ or else!

Metro Vancouver controls the garbage disposal system in our region. This gives them the power to "shut the gate" on items that should not be thrown away.

Last summer, at the urging of political leaders who are championing a Zero Waste Challenge, Metro Vancouver approved a policy that anything that can be recycled must not go in the garbage.

Currently thousands of tonnes of newspaper, cardboard, yard waste and other easily recyclable products go to waste each year. Almost half of our garbage is things that could be recycled but aren't!

The new rules will change all that ~ if enough people know about the new rules. Did YOU know that you will no longer be allowed to throw your Georgia Straight in a street litter bin, starting on January 1st?

Maybe the Straight and other free newspapers should provide handy recycling containers next to their distribution boxes, eh?

(As far as we can tell, only Burnaby seems to be publicizing the new bans. Good work, Burnaby! Has anyone seen notices of the impending disposal bans in other municipalities?)

Composting grows ~ everywhere but BC!

"British Columbia was the only province where household participation in composting declined from 1994 to 2006," according to an article in Solid Waste & Recycling providing highlights of a newly released Stats Can study of household recycling practices.

The study also found that 40% of Victoria-area households compost, compared with only 23% in the Vancouver area.

The most avid composters in Canada in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where provincial regulations ban disposal of organics from landfills and incinerators.

A regional ban on landfilling of yard waste in Metro Vancouver will come into effect on January 8, 2007. We can catch up to the other provinces as soon as households and businesses in our region have access to composting services for food scraps!