Vancouver Mayor Gregor
Robertson proudly announced a new citywide program to reduce garbage
today, one that keeps table scraps out of landfills and sends them back
to the soil. Standing in front of the vegetable garden in the backyard
of City Hall, Robertson was ebullient as he announced "an auspicious"
moment: the launch of a program that would not only transform a
significant percentage of what people throw away in Vancouver into a
nutrient-rich material that goes back to the soil, but an achievement
that added depth to his reputation as Vancouver's "green mayor."
"It's an auspicious occasion,"
he said.
"I can't think of a better way to celebrate Earth Day
than by launching a program that will make a huge difference in
reducing Vancouver's environmental impact. The program is coming to all
homes that have their yard trimmings picked up and that's over 110,000
homes.
"This was one of the 44 quick-start actions recommended
by the Greenest City Action Team last year and we're now seeing it
taking action. Creating a compost pick up program was the number one
requested program from more than 1,000 people who gave input to the
Greenest City Action Team. The goal is to reduce our waste by 40
percent by the year 2020. It's a realistic goal when you think that
we create more waste per capita than the average Canadian
municipality," Robertson said.
Media assembled at 9:30 Tuesday
morning, the day before Earth Day, to hear Mayor Robertson's speech,
announcing new citywide curbside food scrap pick up program
City of Vancouver's
composting motto: "Your food isn't garbage. Turn your food scraps into
compost."
"Curbside composting will
have one of the most lasting positive impacts on quality of life on the
city," Councillor
Andrea Reimer told the Vancouver Observer. "This is all about
reducing garbage going into the landfill.
"How do we take things
that had a value to us and make sure they continue to have value, rather
than become trash? This is about not having to put money into costly
solutions like incineration. About 35 percent of residential garbage is
compostable. Three phases. We start today with phase one, doing raw
fruit and vegetables, tea bags and coffee grounds, which can be used.
"As
of January 1, 2011, we'll move to all foods...anything that's
compostable. Including pizza boxes and food wrappers that have grease
on them that you can't currently put into compost and we'll put that
into our industrial facility. The next phase is we're figuring out how
to work with the private garbage pick up people that service businesses
and apartment buildings, condos."
What can people do to
help make the program work?
"Call 3-1-1. We will need a
virtual army of volunteers out on the street. Some people are very
familiar with composting and we need their help, [even if] it's [just]
handing out a brochure to a neighbour at their door. We have many
languages in the city, many age groups, many people with different
experiences. [We'd like] to get people with a lot of experience with
composting to talk with people who don't have experience with
composting..."
The program, Reimer said, is costing $230,000 into
communications effort into this year and another $230,000 into phase
II. The food will no longer go to the landfill, so it won't be
traveling as far. The food will go to a private company in Richmond so
no increased cost to taxpayers. In Richmond, it will be recycled into
compost that will be sold to agricultural operations.
