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Mar 4,2007 - Tricity News

By Jeff Nagel Black Press
Mar 04 2007

Higher tipping fees for garbage disposal are among the options being considered as the Greater Vancouver Regional District readies a new assault on waste.

It’s going to be called the Zero Waste Challenge but not all GVRD directors are entirely behind its target of eliminating the region’s collective garbage output.

“I do not like the term,” said Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan. “No one gets to zero. Sometimes putting up expectations that are unrealistic tends to make people back away.”

He said a Toronto goal of zero waste going to landfills led to questionable results, such as increased shipments of trash to the U.S. or incineration.

“While it’s good PR, it doesn’t tell the true story of what is attainable,” he said.

“This is a challenge, not necessarily an achievable goal,” responded GVRD chief administrator Johnny Carline.

GVRD directors voted last Friday to have staff investigate and report back on a series of potential options. In addition to higher tipping fees, they include:

• tougher enforcement and stiffer penalties for illegal disposal of cardboard, newsprint, office paper and drywall;

• new disposal bans on yard and garden waste and all blue box recyclable material;

• incentives for composting, possibly through lower tipping fees.

The GVRD is also looking at starting a food waste composting pilot project at the Vancouver Landfill in Delta.

Past efforts to compost food waste have failed because of either the stench or contaminated runoff, but a staff report says a new technology that would combine food and yard and garden waste looks promising.

Another avenue to cut the waste stream is through more use of “extended producer responsibility” – typically deposit systems run by manufacturers and retailers similar to what’s in place for beverage containers and tires.

A new system to allow the return of computers and other electronic waste to depots is to be launched this summer, and more deposit-refund systems are in the works.

“Deposits on detergent bottles is one of the next main goals of the Recycling Council of B.C.,” said West Vancouver Mayor Pamela Goldsmith-Jones.

North Vancouver District Mayor Richard Walton backed the challenge, but said it has to be a “major, major initiative” if the GVRD is to do more than just “go through the motions.”

Surrey Coun. Judy Villeneuve said a major push will be needed to make recycling easier and more efficient for apartment dwellers in light of the trend toward denser development.

“People living in smaller units are less likely to store recyclable items or organic waste,” she said. “That’s a challenge.”

The initiative is expected to include major education and advertising components, although no budget has yet been set.

The Zero Waste Challenge is seen as one way to reduce the amount of waste in need of disposal as the GVRD looks at a variety of options – from a new regional landfill to modern incinerators – to replace its nearly full Cache Creek Regional Landfill.

Lower Mainland residents and businesses generate 3.1 million tonnes per year of waste, just over half of which is recycled.

WHERE GVRD WASTE GOES

• 1.6 million tonnes is recycled

• 470,000 tonnes to the Vancouver Landfill

• 380,000 tonnes to Cache Creek Landfill

• 370,000 tonnes to private landfills (mainly demolition and land clearing waste)

• 270,000 tonnes to Waste-to-Energy incinerator

TOP WASTE STREAM MATERIALS

• Wood – 22%

• Paper and paperboard – 14%

• Food – 13%

• Plastics – 9%

• Rubber, leather and textiles – 8%

• Inorganics – 7%

• Yard and garden – 5%

• Bulky objects – 5%

• Metals – 4%

• Small appliances – 4%

• Roofing – 3%

• Household hygiene – 2%

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