HelenS
My feedback
36 results found
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6 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
The BIAs are a great structure for addressing an embarrassing problem: businesses don't recycle nearly as well as residents do at home. Part of the problem that nobody is enforcing the laws against putting recyclable materials in the trash. BIAs can organize to put pressure on the garbage industry, demand better recycling and punish haulers that don't offer competitive recycling. Alas, the City has a vested interest in this because they get paid for the space dumpsters sit on... jungle of self interests!
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Lets recycle the burnt out light bulbs from street lights and traffic signals. This would reduce was
2 votesAn error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
In the spirit of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) the City should require all vendors to provide take-back service for products the City purchases. The "supply chain" should be a loop going back to the producer.
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5 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
Diapers are a perfect candidate for EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility). In the 1990s the industry set up a company called Knowaste that developed a system for recycling them (sort of: diapers need a major redesign to be truly recyclable). But government missed the opportunity to regulate, and instead spends tax dollars collecting them and trying to compost them in city facilities (Toronto). The province should bring Pampers etc to the table and say: here's the deadline ~ show us your plan. This is how we are getting TVs and computers out of our landfills. If the producers find it's hard to recycle diapers, they'll come up with a better design...
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10 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
This is the RecycleBank program sponsored by Coca Cola as a way of avoiding taking direct responsibility for their containers. It is very controversial because you are rewarded no matter what you put in your recycling container. It also does nothing to reward reduced consumption. That having been said, I wholeheartedly support fining the dickens out of miscreants who violate our existing bylaws on recycling. Did YOU know it is illegal to put a newspaper in the garbage? (Same goes for anything you can put in the Blue Box or return to the producer for recycling.)
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29 votes
The City has already started a food scraps collection program for neighbourhoods where yard trimmings are collected. These materials are currently composted. With more organic waste diversion, the City will explore opportunties to implement technolgies that produce biogas like gassifiers and anaerobic digesters.
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
Landfill gas is a liability -- better to avoid producing it (ban organics from the landfill) than try to catch it after it's formed. As much as 90% of landfill gas escapes ("fugitive" emissions!). A safer process is to get methane from a controlled process dealing with carefully controlled materials. Landfill gas has toxic compounds coming from the stuff we put in our garbage. We should continue to capture as much gas as we can from the closed cells in our landfill, but commit to ending the practice of putting organic materials there. Go Vision for pushing Metro Vancouver to ban organics from disposal by 2015 as part of their waste plan!!!
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146 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
Even threatening a ban gets results. BC retailer associations were pressured into making a commitment to cut plastic bag use in half over a 5-year period. Let's go back to them when the 5 years are up, ask for proof they made the target, and then put a draconian tax on bags to finish the job!
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15 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
Blue Box recycling is old-school. It's "welfare for waste." The better way is to require producers to take back their packaging and recycle it. That's how it works with tetra-paks in BC (and most other Canadian provinces) -- you pay a nickel when you buy it and get your nickel back when you return it. Producer/consumer responsibility. Consumers get rewarded for recycling. Ask the Mayor and Council how much we spend as a city on recycling containers in the Blue Box: every nickel we spend is a subsidy encouraging wasteful packaging!
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19 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
The province can require roofing manufacturers to establish a recycling service (called "Extended Producer Responsibility"). Now that there is an established process for reusing the material, there's only one thing standing in the way: YOUR voice (City Council) asking for it on our behalf. We all pay when good materials go to waste.
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11 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
I wholeheartedly agree! Cities like Vancouver need to drive EPR for packaging by refusing to provide free recycling service for packaging materials.
The Mayor should encourage citizens to complain to the dairies and other industries that generate huge quantities of packaging and insist that the industry provide a recycling program instead of relying on citizens to cut back on libraries, schools, parks and other community services to provide recycling service. We can temporarily continue to recycle newspaper and other paper in our curbside program, because that actually brings in money -- but in the long run, those should be the producers' responsibility too.
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334 votesHelenS
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426 votesHelenS
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27 votesHelenS
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Create signs to alert tourists that water, pop, juice and alcohol bottles are refundable, not trash.
9 votesHelenS
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20 votes
The draft Greenest City Action Plan includes an action to develop reuse centres.
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
Stella, would you like to help Zero Waste Vancouver set up a new social enterprise: a chain of neighbourhood thrift stores? We are looking for vacant storefronts in different neighbourhoods where we could operate. There is a huge inventory of valuable stuff going to waste -- as we approach Peak Oil these products will have greater and greater value. Will YOUR neighbourhood be the first one to set up a ZW Thrift Store?
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7 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment HelenS
commented
"Simplified" recycling (everything in one container) would cause more problems than it would solve. The paper industry, in particular, has complained for years about the deterioration in paper quality when materials are mixed together in the recycling program -- you never get the same quality when you try to unscramble mixed materials.
My own recommendation is for the City to eliminate recycling of containers. Many bottles and cans can go back for refunds -- the rest (milk, yogurt, detergent, etc. etc.) should also be the producer's responsibility. Those containers cost us money to recycle. Why should the taxpayer pick up after the producers of these products?
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3 votesHelenS
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