GC 2020
96 results found
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School Compost and Recycling Programs
Install more Recycling and Compost areas inside Schools to decrease litter and keep school gardens healthy
18 votes -
Plasma Arc Waste Disposal
Plasma Arc Waste Disposal (or Gasification) is a method of waste disposal used for its capability of recycling nearly every material that is put into it.
Using clean electrical arcs, the GVRD could decompose any waste into its component elements. Carbon Dioxide would decompose into Carbon and Oxygen; plastics would decompose into Hydrogen, Carbon, and other base elements contained within; and organic wastes like food would decompose into Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, Nitrogen, among numerous other elements.
Metals and alloys can be separated into each component metal, allowing quicker and easier reuse and refabrication.
"Plasma gasification is also used for specialized…
20 votes -
Make the free stuff Xchange on 4th and McDonald official.
It's a great corner run by 'Santa Claus', a white earded man who patrols the street for useful 'junk' and leaves it on the corner for anyone to take and 'reuse'. I've found some amazing things there and he keeps the stuff outta the landfill.
Reusing is better than recycling anyday!!
10 votes -
Composting Program for Buildinga west of Denman
Use part of Stanley Park to start a small composting program for apartments west of denman St. Low transport costs with high density...reduces garbage in dumpster and offers free compost for park and or residents. if it works duplicate using other parks in vancouver with nearby apartment complexes.
8 votes -
BYOC (Bring Your Own Container/Cup)
Consumers have a responsibility to their own carbon footprint and not just the businesses. Bring your own container to the restaurant when you order food to go just like we bring reusuable mugs for drinks! Businesses can offer a discount as an encouragement.
23 votes -
Expand the Current Blue Box Recycling Program and Offer it to Local Businesses
In many of my former workplaces, there has been little to no recycling of plastics, metals, glass and other recyclable materials for there was no collection program in place. Businesses should be required to pay to sign up for a blue box program that is connected to the residential one, and they could receive greater fee rebates the more recyclable materials they divert from the landfills.
21 votes -
Expand current blue box recycling
Expand what can be recycled in the blue-box containers (eg: tetra-paks, plastic bags / wrappers / film, and other plastic types)
Personally, I would prefer to see a reduction in the use of plastic shopping bags. But in the mean time...it would be great to be able to recycle them effortlessly & easily.
15 votes -
Ban any EPR material from being commingled in single stream totes. Specificaly packaging materials!
Ban any EPR material from being commingled in single stream totes. Specificaly packaging materials!
5 votes -
compost street bins
To reduce smell and garbage, and can be picked up daily by volunteers or city works to be put in round about gardens or used in local parks
5 votes -
Make It Mandatory That Asphalt Roofing Shingles Be Banned from Landfills (and recycled instead)
In the Vancouver region alone approximately 80,000 tonnes of tear-off roofing shingles are disposed of in our landfills each year! 80,000 tonnes means 160,000 barrels of oil used and 4.8 million tonnes of CO2 produced! This is unnecessary waste, and there is one company making a difference in this area that grinds up the shingles to be sold as binder in asphalt paving mixes and as fuel for kilns. To keep this huge amount of waste that could be re-used out of our landfills, the city of Vancouver should partner with this company by either purchasing grinders so the landfills…
19 votes -
Ban disposable cups, plates and cutlery in all restaurants/cafes
Let's face it: coffee tastes better from a real cup; food is easier to eat from a real plate! Single use containers/cutlery create massive amounts of waste. How to stop this senseless waste of materials and energy? Phase in a progressive ban on them: start with requiring restaurants to offer reusuable plates/cups/cutlery, and eventually require them for all in-house service.
190 votes -
Thermal Depolymerization
I'm aware of the attempts to collect methane from landfills. But there is a better technology that will reduce waste entering landfills in the first place... Thermal depolymerisation. It is still a relatively fledgling - but proven - technology (14-ish years old) but worth looking into. http://www.changingworldtech.com/
This invention is recycling par excellence. It would mean a reduction of new fossil carbon into the atmosphere, with a superlatively effective reuse of existing biomass. It could also solve all the CH4 emission problems of landfills; in fact, farm waste, old tyres, landfills and sewage systems would become a resource.
I realise…
18 votes -
Mandatory composting of horse manure at barns within city limits
As a U. of Guelph Equine Sciences student last fall, I used Stanley Park as a research area and was surprised to learn the manure at the police barns was not composted on site and used for the city's gardens. It's trucked away and nobody seemed to know where to. Then I recently learned that Southlands Heritage Farm has a proposal for a biodigester on their property, but the city will not approve it due to a "lack of understanding of the unit". I don't believe Hastings Park has a composter either. Raw horse manure is toxic to the environment…
6 votes -
Charge business and commercial waste by weight instead of by bin
Wastes from businesses and commercial enterprises are generally put into dumpsters that are removed on a regular basis. These wastes includes food waste from restaurants, grocery stores and markets as well as industrial wastes such as wood, metals, construction materials and so on. If businesses were incentives to reduce the WEIGHT of their wastes they would be much more likely to find creative ways to divert it from the landfill stream. So dumpsters with less 'garbage' in them simply cost less to the business.
14 votes -
Recycling should be compulsory
I was amazed to find out that recycling is an option for business, and even for large residential buildings. A friend who lives in a 50-unit residential building (near Broadway and Commercial) found out that they were not recycling anything. When she brought it up with the landlord, he said that it was not required and that it was a waste of money.
Even if fines are not in place, recycling should be mandatory. If the city still needs to charge extra to finance this service , it should not be an option.
There are similar ideas about recycling, including…44 votes -
Recycle Hotel Soaps and Bottled Amenities
Every year in British Columbia the hotel industry deposits over 250 metric tones of soap and bottled amenities directly into our landfills. What if that soap could be cleaned, sanitized, and re-purposed for humanitarian emergencies and communities around the world where hand washing with soap can reduce by up to 60% the deaths of children under the age of 5. www.cleantheworld.org
Mission Possible, a agency in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is employing women at risk by recycling hotel soaps and bottled amenities. www.mission-possible.ca
5 votes -
pharmaceutical plastic packaging
Drugstores produce lots of plastic waste. All players should be responsible for there proper disposal,
4 votes -
To stimulate food waste recycling, offer a monthly bin cleaning service.
Since food waste will be in a bin for 2 weeks before collection, it tends to become smelly and full with bugs. This could be a major drawback for a lot of people, especially during the summer months. Therefore, offer a monthly or bi-monthly cleaning service on the day the waste is collected. In this way, recycling will become a lot less smelly! This service is in use in the Netherlands where food waste recycling has been around for a long time, and works perfectly!
1 vote -
Water Reclamation and Re-use
Use a local sustainable technology such as Solar Aquatics to clean waste water for re-use within our communities. Decentralizing our waste water treatment and using fully aerated biological systems will reduce energy (pumping) costs, eliminate greenhouse gas and water pollution that come with conventional sewage treatment, reduce the amount of fresh water we need to take to take off the mountain and clean, and provide an abundance of recycled water for use in parks, gardens, green roofs, fire suppression, or a host of other needs we have.
6 votes -
Diaper recycling plant
Some stats : 27.4 billion disposable diapers are consumed every year in the U.S.
Over 92% of all single-use diapers end up in a landfill.
Disposable diapers are the third largest single consumer item in landfills, and represent about 4% of solid waste.
No one knows how long it takes for a disposable diaper to decompose, but it is estimated to be about 250-500 years, long after your children, grandchildren and great, great, great grandchildren will be gone.5 votes