MAKE IT A GREEN 2008 (YOU REALLY HAVE NO CHOICE)
The City of Vancouver is making it much tougher for you to be lazy when it comes to taking care of your community (and your planet). As of January 1, 2008, new garbage restrictions in Metro Vancouver will limit what you can stack at the curb or toss into the garbage bins behind your apartment.
Photo courtesy of unity.project on Flickr
The following items are strictly banned when it comes to tossing it in the trash:
For more information, please visit the City of Vancouver’s website.
I still have yet to find a composting solution for downtown living aside from worm composting. If anyone has any ideas, solutions or knows of a downtown location at which to rid of compost materials, please e-mail me at keira at keira-anne dot com or leave a message in the comments.
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6 Comments
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Hooray!
My landlord found that people were not properly using the blue bins behind my building so he provides regular garbage cans for everyone to put all their trash in and he sorts it all out himself.
For composting on your balcony, the City of Ottawa suggests using a metal or plastic garbage can. Punch holes in the base, sides and lid using a hammer and large nail. Raise the bin on bricks and place a tray underneath to catch any excess moisture. Line the bottom of the bin with a three-inch layer of finished compost, soil, or shredded leaves; then you can start adding your organic kitchen scraps such as fruit and veggie peelings, tea leaves and coffee grounds, shredding the material finely to speed the process. Remember, no meat and no dairy products!
Each time you add kitchen waste you should also add an equal amount of brown or dry material. Your home-owning friends will be glad to give you a bag of leaves come autumn, or you can use shredded newspaper and the contents of your vacuum cleaner bag. (Of course you will want to avoid shreddings from nylon carpets and other synthetic materials.) This will counteract any excess moisture problems and provide an efficient carbon/nitrogen ratio.
Because your composting can will be smaller than a regular compost pile, it might suffer from a lack of heat, so if possible stand it close to the building wall, or where it will get a few hours of sunshine every day. Finally, aerate the pile by turning it frequently, and add soil occasionally—the microorganisms in soil are necessary for the decomposition process.
All being well, you will have soil to harvest in four to six months. Empty your bin, and start afresh with a new base, putting back any material from the first batch which has not properly decomposed. Use the soil for your favourite house plants, or try balcony gardening. Tomatoes, peppers and suchlike grow nicely in pots, and you can savour the unmatched flavour of your very own homegrown veggies.
Hi!
I found your blog a few days ago and have enjoyed reading. I’m a “soccer mom” in the city of Vancouver, trying to reduce my family of five’s impact. We started composting in our (small) yard a couple of years ago abd it’s been going well.
To your question, I think the City has tossed around ideas of a “green box” program but, as always, the cost gets in the way.
In the mean time, why not check to see if one of these spots will take your kitchen compost?
Vancouver Compost Demonstration Garden, 2150 Maple Street 604.685.5832
Mole Hill Community Garden
In the lane between Comox and Pendrell, Bute and Thurlow downtown. Half the plots are for residents of Mole Hill and half for residents of the West End.
Mardel Greenough 604-682-1109
Expanding to 70 plots by end 2002. Rentals are $10 per year.
http://www.wera.bc.ca
If not, maybe you can find someone else close by who does compost and drop it off once a week. Inconvenient, I know, but it keeps it out of the landfill.
Good luck!
For computer “waste” use Free Geek - they can pick everything up.
I find it really frustrating that there is no ‘green box’ program here. In Toronto and many surrounding areas, we’ve had the green box for compost for…something like 3 years now? The green box contents are collected every week, and then the garbage is only collected every 2 weeks (in certain municipalities). Since I’ve moved out here to Vancouver, I feel like I’m throwing away so much waste as the majority of my garbage could be compost. I feel horrible doing it.