Metro Vancouver Food Scraps Recycling program begins

By Michelle Hopkins
March 26, 2015

A move by Metro Vancouver to begin collecting food scraps and other organic waste from condos and apartment buildings is the latest example of the expanding efforts by municipalities across the province to recycle large quantities of unused food in order to cut back the amount going to the landfill.

On Jan. 1, the Metro Vancouver Food Scraps Recycling program was expanded to include the mandatory ordinance for apartments and condos.

Metro Vancouver is home to approximately 152,000 condos/apartments in multi-family buildings serviced by private waste collectors. As of last summer, only five per cent of those buildings voluntarily adopted the green bin collection, according to a staff report.

Albert Shamess, the city’s director of waste management, says some larger buildings fear the increase costs with this new program will be too high.

“There will be an extra cost for buildings as it’s an extra collection, however tipping fees for processing of organic material at the two local processors, Harvest Power and Envirosmart, tend to be lower than the cost to dispose of material at the landfill,” adds Shamess. “There may be some offsetting of costs as a result of lower tipping fees for composting. The best thing to do is speak to their existing waste hauler to get up to date costing.”

When the Metro Vancouver Food Scraps Recycling program was initially rolled out to single-family homes back in April 2013, there was concern about vermin, but moving the scrapes from the garbage can to the composting bin doesn’t change much.

If it’s done properly, Shamess says, there are no issues at all.

Meanwhile, the environmental benefits of the Metro Vancouver Food Scraps Recycling program are significant. Since the city’s waste collection service adopted the green bin system for single-family homes, it has reduced garbage going to disposal by 40 per cent and increased material going to beneficial use through composting by 60 per cent.

Concert Properties has a company-wide initiative to create an easy way for its rental and own-occupied buildings to recycle and compost. Since 2005, Concert has been implementing a forerunner of the Metro Vancouver Food Scraps Recycling program in all of its rental properties.

Concert has an easy-to-follow system that allows residents to divert Styrofoam, small appliances, electronic waste, light bulbs, batteries, soft plastics, mixed paper/cardboard and mixed containers from the landfill into one of its 10 recycling streams. As a result, Concert’s garbage related greenhouse gas emissions fell 80 per cent compared to their baseline in 2010.

Now, in an effort to further its impact and reduction in waste and emissions, Concert has begun rolling out its composting and recycling in all of its buildings — rental and owner-occupied — with a goal of achieving a 90 per cent diversion over its requirements.

“Our most recent building downtown, Salt in Yaletown, is now on board and we are implementing the program to our newest building, Era in Victoria this spring,” he says.

Niko is one condo dweller who fully supports the plan, lauding Concert Properties for going above and beyond in its commitment to the composting and recycling program.

“I’ve lived in other apartment buildings and their composting programs were pretty much non-existent,” says Niko, a recent university graduate. “Here… the owners make it really easy to stay on board.”

Meads went on to say: “You can give residents a bucket and tell them to compost, but that doesn’t mean that they will just comply. We have learned that education, habit and simplification are ultimately what will spur results, and the time we have put into understanding this, and simplifying the recycling and composting process for all of our residents is what has allowed us to see incredible results.”

Ultimately, the goal is to be left with very little in the traditional garbage can, adds Shamess.

Beginning this summer, Metro Vancouver will start slapping penalties on those developers and property managers who place any organics in the garbage bins.

The City of Vancouver has many resources available on its website to help building managers and strata councils navigate how to get a system set up, including what companies can provide service, what questions to ask and what issues to deal with.

About Michelle Hopkins

Michelle Hopkins is a freelance journalist and corporate writer with extensive experience in development projects, home and business writing.

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