Food waste fines in effect July 1 - Metro Vancouver

[Presto]

Reminder for all you people in Vancouver. Looks like one big headache for most people involved.

METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The grace period is almost over for people and businesses in Metro Vancouver who continue to put food scraps in the garbage.

July 1 is when fines will be levied for improperly disposed-of food waste.

The policy actually went into effect in January, but Metro Vancouver wanted to give folks and companies time to put new garbage systems in place.

Andrew Marr, Director of Solid Waste Programming, says they will be keeping track of how much food is winding up in normal garbage loads.

“We will start putting surcharges on loads of waste when they come to our disposal sites. If a load has more than 25 per cent food waste by volume then it will be surcharged,” he explains.

The surcharge will be an additional 50 per cent of the cost of the disposal. For example, a $100 load will cost $150 with the additional surcharge.

Garbage companies will be paying the fine up front, since they are the ones depositing the waste. But Marr says those companies can figure out where the food has come from and pass on that extra expense.

“Some haulers have said to us they have a good idea of who the likely sources of organic waste are. There is a certain logic to that. They know which businesses on their route produce food waste.”

Those likely sources are restaurants and grocery stores.

Whether the food waste ratio will be tightened from 25 per cent of a load, down to say 10 per cent, over the next few years has yet to be decided.

Marr says casual inspections of garbage loads over the last six months have revealed 99 per cent of garbage loads had acceptable levels of food waste.

He points out zero-food-waste policies are in effect in many places in the world such as Halifax, whose ban is already 17 years old.

As for when we’ll see food waste bins in schools, community centres, churches and other public facilities, Marr says it’s only a matter of time before the bins become mainstream.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by Presto

Reminder for all you people in Vancouver. Looks like one big headache for most people involved.

Is dumb lol. Say a person eat at the food court or eat subway. Or when they ate at subway or food trucks and there are food waste and you just throw it in the garbage and the business gets fine? That's dumb. What about a tourist dines at the food court and have no fucking idea where to throw what in those stupid garbage cans. Or what if I am sick and all the food I touch are inflected with gems shouldn't it be in the garbage to avoid the spread of virus?

Or what if I am walking down downtown and finish half of mine hot dogs and throw it to the nearest garbage can so now the city will pay for it?

What about apartment complex? How will they know who or what unit dumps the food waste in garbage? So now everyone in the apartments have to pay more coz a few decided not to follow the rules?

[adambomb]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

Is dumb lol. Say a person eat at the food court or eat subway. Or when they ate at subway or food trucks and there are food waste and you just throw it in the garbage and the business gets fine? That's dumb. What about a tourist dines at the food court and have no fucking idea where to throw what in those stupid garbage cans. Or what if I am sick and all the food I touch are inflected with gems shouldn't it be in the garbage to avoid the spread of virus?

Or what if I am walking down downtown and finish half of mine hot dogs and throw it to the nearest garbage can so now the city will pay for it?

What about apartment complex? How will they know who or what unit dumps the food waste in garbage? So now everyone in the apartments have to pay more coz a few decided not to follow the rules?

Why dont you try not being a lazy fuck and look for a food waste bin instead of garbage bin. You open the lid and throw in uneaten food. How fucking hard is that? You will see food waste bins more often. Coquitlam centre food court doesn't even have garbage bins. They have staff that sort your food/garbage. German malls have been doing this for years. I'm pretty sure tourists can figure it out.

People said it would be a pain sorting paper and plastic years ago. Now everyone does it with no problems.

Stop being so dramatic, Caitlyn Jenner.

[Ulic Qel-Droma]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

what if I am sick and all the food I touch are inflected with gems shouldn't it be in the garbage to avoid the spread of virus?

lol

[dragondragon99]

sounds ridiculous

[vitaminG]

I don't think this is going to have much impact on the average household. Sounds like it's going to target more businesses who throw out a shit ton of food.

[StylinRed]

yeah i read that they're not going to care about residential trash (the govt.) and they wont send out trash inspectors and if they fine anyone it will be the trash collectors

the trash collectors on the other hand want to charge households for an extra service to collect food waste -_- it should just be the same service but households will simply have their trash separated, like the recycling collection...

WasteManagement dictates no large trash bins for food waste, and the bin cannot have wheels (wtf?) and no bags (not even compost bags)

just a pita

[Gnomes]

I am already using pesticides for the ants that are attracted to my green bin...

[bigzz786786]

These food bins are a fucking joke for apartments, i recieved one for my apartment where we have to throw food waste into then take it into the garbage bin downstairs, wihout bags the bins reek and the garbage bin downstairs is a fucking nightmare, the whole floor is sticky and the garbage area smells like a hot shit in a louisianna summer.

[jackmeister]

If someone has more than 25% of their garbage bin filled with food, they have way bigger issues to deal with.

That said, I'm not sure how people are, but in my alley our neighbours usually "share" the garbage bin space, because everyone has varying garbage. So easy to get shafted lol.

[Tone Loc]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

Or what if I am walking down downtown and finish half of mine hot dogs and throw it to the nearest garbage can so now the city will pay for it?

Really? You can't finish half a hot dog?

Looks to me like you have bigger problems than the proper sorting of food waste...

[mr_chin]

I'm not really sure how they are going to figure which household is throwing food in the garbage bin. Are they gonna check every bag of every house after they empty the bin?

This is mainly for businesses.

Putting food waste bin in public will not ensure people using it correctly. Worse case scenario, people will throw their garbage in there when they find convenient. Would this mean that schools will be fined if they find food in the garbage bin? How will they enforce this on students and shoppers at the mall?

[asian_XL]

All you can eat restaurants will be affected.

[swfk]

Good tip I found for the stinky and sticky green bins.

Newspaper is decomposable, simply fold up 1 sheet of newspaper and roughly line the green bin. It'll absorb the oils and juices and reduce the gunk on the inner bin surface. Way easier to clean every few days.

[flagella]

Boy... The smell compost bin reeks in this heat wave.

[moody]

I know. It stinks pretty bad each time i open the compost bin. What a hassle to wash too... ��... I wish they sold some kind of scented liner for the bin that's also decomposable ... Like those bags for your dog poo... Lol and when the garbage guys come and empty your bin, they just take the bag.

[melloman]

My grandmother lives in an apartment building in Burnaby that will be implementing this plan in the new year. She's old and doesn't make daily trips to throw out garbage as she's living by herself.

They recommended that she "put the food waste in a freezer bag and put it in the freezer so it won't smell" if she doesn't want to make daily trips to the bin.

[Tapioca]

Our building has had compost bins since February. It's worked out pretty well as our property manager does a pretty good job of cleaning the bins once they've been emptied. I bought a simple bin from London Drugs and line it with newspaper and so far, the smell hasn't been noticeable, nor have we had problems with fruit flies.

Once we started separating our food waste, it was remarkable to see how much of our waste was actually food scraps. The change has definitely made us more aware of the waste we produce, so overall, it's been positive.

[6o4__boi]

we started in October and beside the pain in the ass of having to clean the bin every now and then, it just becomes part of everyday life.

The collector bins sit in the underground lot out of everyone's way so it hasn't been that bad, though i assume that thing has never been cleaned cus its nasty af

now i'm actually happy to receive all these random flyers cus i use em as liners lol

[InvisibleSoul]

The smell is definitely a problem in the warmer weather... but a bigger problem are the creepy crawlies. Here come the maggots!

[classified]

you can use decomposable paper bags inside your green bins, never thought people wernt using them lol.(Much cheaper in states than here). Just keep a paper towel at the bottom of the bin as a just in case.
No more stinky bin
No need to take whole bin to garbage area
Profit??

[yray]

I wonder how the garburator business is after this ban.

[Great68]

We've had this system in Victoria for over 2 years now.
I can't speak to how it works in Multi-Dwelling units, but for our house it works just fine. We've been composting in a separate bin for years for our garden anyways, so it hasn't really any added any extra work or inconvenience to our routine.
I don't find smells any worse than they used to be when food scraps used to go in the trash, even in this heat (and we only get bi-weekly pickup in Victoria)
Between composting and recycling, my garbage bin barely gets over half full between pickups.

We can use these compostable bags (100 pack from Costco) with some paper towel to line the compost bucket and keep things a lot cleaner:

[AzNightmare]

Originally Posted by classified

you can use decomposable paper bags inside your green bins, never thought people wernt using them lol.(Much cheaper in states than here). Just keep a paper towel at the bottom of the bin as a just in case.
No more stinky bin
No need to take whole bin to garbage area
Profit??

Whenever I eat at McD, I keep the brown paper bags just for this purpose.

[Edison_Chen]

Do the paper bags need to be decomposable or can we use any brown paper bag(ie paper lunch bags)?