GC 2020
96 results found
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Minimize allowable garbage pickup to 1 can / 2 weeks, and allow all amounts of recycling / compost
Capping the amount of recycling allowable for pick-up does not encourage recycling adequately, as it results in the homeowner needing to truck their (i.e.) large cardboard boxes to a transfer station. Often this is seen as too arduous, and instead a person will just call a junk-hauler. Accepting all amounts of recycling encourages people to separate their waste to take full advantage of the recycling pick-up system.
Limiting the volume of garbage can allowable per person will push people to compress and carefully select which items go to waste.
To deter putting garbage in recycling containers, perhaps collectors could give…
14 votes -
Biodegradable Shopping bags.
As a grocery clerk, I can see this idea being very effective among the people, and the environment.
Plastic bags are commonly used by retailers because they are cheap, strong, functional, lightweight, and a hygenic means of carrying food and other items. However, we use a staggering amount of plastic bags, despite their harmful effects. Plastic bags litter the landscape, kill animals, are non-biodegradable, and created using petroleum.
I propose a change to this system, using biodegradable plastic shopping bags. Also, if a customer may wish to use a biodegradable bag, it will cost them a mandatory fee. Therefore, a…
13 votes -
Fines for not recycling
The City should insitute and enforce fines against residents and commercial entities for placing recyclables in the garbage. Currently recycling is voluntary. it should not be.
11 votes -
Free Landfill and Recycling Areas For All Products this will Reduce Waste the Fastest
Citizens of Vancouver already pay enough in taxes, this service should be available to everyone in Vancouver, this will reduce the waste faster than any other idea.
3 votes -
Keep the streets clean and swept
A trash littered and gum encrusted downtown core does not enhance Vancouver’s bohemian edginess. They make the city look filthy and encourage more littering. Cleanliness is a virtue; City, please do your job and sweep / scrape the streets much more often than you do presently. Compared to other densely populated places like Chicago, Atlanta and New York, we’re filthy. It's embarrassing and pathetic.
3 votes -
Create signs to alert tourists that water, pop, juice and alcohol bottles are refundable, not trash.
Tourists, visitors and new Vancouver residents don't always know that in the City of Vancouver, these bottles are worth money, and are not garbage. A sign at each garbage can might prevent this and encourage them to put the bottles in the trash can pocket provided.
9 votes -
Shooting rubbish at 50mph for a cleaner residential development
Read all about it here: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-tech-shooting-rubbish-at-50mph-for-a-cleaner-residential/
I read that this is already happening is other cities in the US.
3 votes -
Get organics from all sectors out of the waste stream - ASAP.
Organic waste creates methane in landfills, a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more potent than C02. Compostable organics need to be taken out of the waste stream using an organics hierarchy - first by preventing extra waste in the first place (up to 40% of our food gets tossed!), recovering food to feed hungry people then animals (think pallet of cans that happen to get dented on one side0, then composted to create a high quality end product that completes our nutrient cycle. As a society, we're as healthy as our top soil. A diversified strategy using back…
27 votes -
Eliminate move-in waste by using reusable moving supplies to move your home or office.
Using reusable moving supplies in place of wasteful cardboard boxes not only allows for easier and more organized packing, water resistant, crush proof crates are loaded onto the moving truck in a 1/3 of the time as cardboard boxes, lessening your hourly moving costs. The use of reusuable moving supplies is Eco-friendly regardless whether the supplies are made from raw or recycled materical. But to further 'green' your move, make sure to use moving supplies that are derived from recycled materical.
13 votes -
Coordinate waste management truck routes
To reduce vehicle emissions, waste management companies for apartment/condos should be coordinated by route / area. I see several different private garbage trucks drive down the same alleys every day. There is a lot of redundancy and extra traffic to collect garbage when several different companies have bins in the same city block. If only one company were responsible for a whole area, their trucks could travel more efficiently, and the number of miles driven by garbage trucks overall in the city would be reduced
17 votes -
Require businesses to be responsible for their own waste
Businesses that create large amounts of waste, and in particular those that encourage littering, such as fast food restaurants, should be responsible for reducing their waste - and for cleaning up what is littered onto City streets. While it is indeed the customers that are littering - it's still the businesses practice of creating large volumes of disposable trash that is the source. If they were responsible for cleaning it up and paying higher costs for its disposal, then they might reduce the amount of waste they produce. Only when it becomes more costly for businesses to create waste than…
234 votes -
Mandatory 25¢ fee for plastic shopping bags
Encourage shoppers to bring their own bags, and create a shift in retail practices, by requiring a payment for every disposable shopping bag.
334 votes -
Provide recycled paper bins, not bags, to encourage paper recycling
Currently the bags get blown away in the wind, fall over. It's quite hard to keep them around. Bins for paper, similar to blue bins, would be much better
8 votes -
Extend food waste collection program to include apartments and condos
While the curbside food waste program is terrific, detached homeowners already have the option of composting in their yards. Extending the program to include apartments dramatically reduce municipal waste and will finally make composting available to the growing number of Vancouverites living in high-density buildings (which is also great for the environment).
770 votesThe City supports Metro Vancouver’s plans to ban food scraps from the incinerator and landfills by 2015. The City will collaborate with Metro Vancouver to develop and implement a plan to ensure apartments, condos, businesses and institutions have access to food scraps collection programs before the ban comes into effect.
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Encourage deconstruction to recover used building materials & reduce construction waste
Construction waste accounts for a huge proportion of waste in our landfills. The majority of materials can be reused, recycled or repurposed. Deconstruction offers job creation opportunities and supports a new market for used building materials
202 votesThe Draft Greenest City Action Plan includes an action to develop a building deconstruction policy. The City is piloting a building deconstruction project and is exploring options for an incentive program to encourage deconstruction.
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Eliminate residential curbside recycling collection of packaging materials
BC is a world wide leader in extended producer responsibility (EPR) policy. Also known as "product stewardship", current legislation covers items such as tires, paint, beverage containers, and electronics. High recycling rates of these materials are achieved through consumer "take back" programs, where recyclable items are returned to retail stores or taken to depots. EPR policy is centred on the notion of placing waste management/recycling responsibility of products that become waste squarely on the shoulders of the industries that produce these items in the first place. The benefit of EPR is that it shifts the costs of managing these items…
11 votes
