Burnaby is now a month into Metro Vancouver’s organics ban, and residents seem to be embracing the green initiative.
While it’s still somewhat early to determine how much organic waste is being diverted from landfills. Dipak Dattani, assistant director of engineering with the city’s environmental services division, said the program has been considered a positive by residents in its beginning stages.
“When we went with our toter program for our curbside collection, we had a green bin provided with it – we did a pilot project and residents were encouraged to add organics to the green bin program, the yard waste toter,” he said. “There were certainly questions coming to us (from residents), more for clarification of what goes where.”
Dattani added that the city is well under way in providing organics bins to residents of apartment complexes, townhouses and condos.
The Metro Vancouver ban, which came into effect Jan. 1, seeks to cut down on methane emissions and create renewable energy from organic waste. There is a six-month grace period for compliance, with fees imposed on residents who have too much organic waste in their garbage bins.
Penalties are imposed when waste trucks reach their transfer station, ultimately fining the City of Burnaby. Because certain collection trucks cover certain zones, Dattani said the city will be able to determine which areas have the most non-compliance and enforce the ban at the curb through education.
“It all depends on which trucks were being penalized, where the trucks were picking up material from, and using that as a more localized approach in a targeted education campaign,” he said. “A certain amount of trucks pick up in a certain zone, so we can target it in a zone level and go from there.”
Organic products banned from garbage bins raw food, plate scrapings, leftovers, depackaged food and meats. Additionally, some food soiled paper such as pizza boxes or used table napkins can be collected with food scraps.
For more information on the organics ban, check burnaby.ca and search “organics ban.”
