Skip to content

How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

  • Hot ideas
  • Top ideas
  • New ideas
  • My feedback

96 results found

  1. 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
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  2. Ban all disposable bags

    It won't take long for people to learn to how easy it is to bring their own bags. Somehow, I've gone two years without taking any paper or plastic bag for my groceries or purchased items.

    146 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  3. E-voting saves on paper ballots

    E-voting saves on paper ballots and ensures greener politicians win since they tend to be favoured by the hackers who would penetrate the online system!

    14 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  4. Require all printers sold in the city to be uneasy to use so people are less likely to use them

    If we mandated that all printers in the city must be non-user friendly, it would help prevent people from wasting paper!

    2 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  5. 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
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  6. "Smart" garbage cans that pay you to recycle

    Modify city garbage and recycling cans to contain identification tags, so the biggest recyclers can get coupons, cash or credit rewards. The worst recyclers get warnings and fines that pay for the project quickly. The cost of this project has been only $2.4 million elsewhere.

    Please look at these links:

    http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/1001-smart_trash_cans.htm

    http://www.telecomengine.com/newsglobe/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_6544

    10 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  7. Outlaw Freebies and Handouts

    Here's a top-down, Draconian notion that still has merit: a bylaw that prohibits the distribution and posting of leaflets and placards and other miscellaney. Fine those who insist on papering our doors, bikes, benches, cars, and streets with unrequested promotional materials. It's one thing to offer somebody an item and another to scatter them pell mell.

    5 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  8. 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
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  9. Lets recycle the burnt out light bulbs from street lights and traffic signals. This would reduce was

    The city should look into a recycling program for the burnt out lights that are removed from street lights and traffic signals.

    2 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  10. Paperless Receipts for Retailers

    It would be nice if everywhere I shopped could offer me a digital receipt, instead of a paper one. Seems to me there are an awful lot of trees being cut down just to give me a few inches of paper that says I bought something.

    And in the digital age we live in, this should be pretty easy to implement.

    214 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  11. Provide a second yard trimmings cart to residents at no extra charge,

    I think the city of vancouver should provide a second larger yard trimmings cart to residents at no extra charge.

    This would help residents be able to put more food scraps and yard trimmings out for collection by the city so instead of just collecting 1 cart, the city would collect two yard trimmings cart from each house.

    7 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  12. Waste to resource programs

    Have the remaining 19 Vancouver Business Improvement Areas adopt the Strathcona Business Improvement Area’s recent waste-to-resource program throughout the city to find opportunities to convert waste from one business to a resource for another business.

    6 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
    1 comment  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  13. Disposable Deposit

    Each and every disposable container should have a 50 cent deposit on it; a coffee cup with a lid = $1.00, a plate, fork and knife $1.50 etc.

    15 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  14. hazardous materials amnesty day

    I recently broke a mercury thermometer in my home and had to take it all the way to Delta, where they charge $100 to dispose of it responsibly. It was extremely tempting to just chuck it in the dumpster and have done with it, and I bet that happens much more often than it should. I hear both Langley and Chilliwack have days in October where they collect hazardous materials at people's homes. Could we do something like that in Vancouver? I think it would go a long way toward keeping hazardous materials out of the landfill.

    3 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  15. Require businesses and office to provide outdoor ashtrays

    [Submitted via mail by Penny Perry]

    "All offices and businesses should be required to provide outdoor ashtrays. The volume of cigarette garbage on the streets, in the gutters and around the boulevard trees is pretty disgusting. I think i heard a tree on Broadway cough the other day."

    0 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
    0 comments  ·  Reduce waste  ·  Admin →
  16. 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
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  17. Ban non recyclable products

    It is about time no? Why can we still buy products that cannot be recycled? If we want a zero waste society, we can not have the choice anymore of consuming goods that will end up in the garbage.

    36 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  18. Compost Organic Soil for City and Homeowner Projects Instead of Non-Sustainable Excavated Soils

    Why are we in this day and age still excavating our finite and rare, rapidly disappearing and endangered natural topsoils and peat bogs?! We have more than enough organic waste from yards, lumber mills, and food to create very high quality compost soils that can be responsibly utilized throughout industry, construction, retail, home gardening, and horticultural/farming. We need to do the right thing by significantly limiting non-sustainable soil and peat excavations, and to increase useage of responsible GREEN products like compost soils from high volume, high-tech composting facilities, which would be an excellent return on investment and environmentally responsible solution…

    7 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  19. High Tech Large Volume Composting instead of Incineration

    How Green is polluting our already smoggy air by incinerating our garbage locally?! We should follow proven and tested highly successful models used in Europe and the USA for high volume organic waste composting facilties. Almost anything that can be burned, can be safely composted and then reused as high quality soils by local homeowners, farmers, retail, and industry. Why has Metro not chosen and built such an odorless and responsible GREEN system here yet? (Like GORE Cover System used in largest such facility in USA located just 1/2hour south of Vancouver in Everett, WA at Cedar Grove Composting) Say…

    3 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)
  20. Use and Promote recycled paper

    We could require the City of Vancouver to develop a policy stating that it will only use recycled paper. Encourage the use of recycled paper throughout the city, and when that is not possible - give preference to Forest Stewardship Council certified Products. We could then require that a portion of our newsprint that is collected to be used in newsprint here in Vancouver - and require a minimum recycled content in newspapers that are distributed in Vancouver (like California!) - which will reduce our climate footprint.

    6 votes
    Vote

    We're glad you're here

    Please sign in to leave feedback

    Signed in as (Sign out)
    You have left! (?) (thinking…)

Feedback and Knowledge Base