Compostable and biodegradable bags not allowed in food scrap bins
Posted January 9, 2015 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
METRO VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A ban on food waste being thrown in the trash is now into its second week in Metro Vancouver. But how clear are you on the new rules?
One may come as a surprise: You can’t line your food scraps bin with bags that are marked biodegradable or compostable.
Esther Berube with Metro Vancouver says the bags are not accepted by private composting facilities in the region. She says some may break into pieces rather than fully compost.
“If there are too many of those bags in the load of food scraps, then the whole load of food scraps would go to disposal instead, because it would compromise the quality of the compost at the end,” she explains.
Berube says there are many different standards for labelling the bags, and those standards would need to be tested. “And there’s no guarantee that they can all turn the film plastic liners into compost completely within their timeframe.”
She recommends using newspaper or brown paper bags.
Several municipalities say they’ve been hearing from strata councils, businesses, property managers, or people who live in apartments — all wanting clarification on what they need to do, as well as enforcement.
Financial enforcement doesn’t start until July first, and it’s businesses that will most likely produce the loads that could lead to fines.
Both Vancouver and Surrey say they’ve had a handful of questions.
In Maple Ridge, Fred Armstrong says the City has been hearing about confusion, and a lot of municipal governments are trying to put together information to help you understand what the implications will be.
“I think at this point, we’re maybe getting four or five calls a day… that’s been pretty consistent. But you know, we do see some discussions on this on social media channels,” says Armstrong.
He adds information is being posted to the city’s website and in the local paper to answer those questions.
“A lot of the time, what we’re doing is just putting them forward to the Metro Vancouver site; they’ve done a really good job in establishing a website, metrovancouver.org… you can go there and you can get a breakdown of what the impact is and it’s a fairly detailed series of pages that they have to help people understand this better.”
Lucy Duso with Metro Vancouver says they’ve been getting between five and 10 phone calls each day — and about the same number of emails — from people living in multi-unit residences, stratas, small businesses, and people living in houses.
“I’d say probably our main three [questions and concerns] would be small businesses and property managers are querying the compliance and enforcement. Our second one is probably small businesses again looking for translated outreach materials — how-to-get-started guides, posters for staff, formal letters indicating the initiation of the ban — and then our third major area would probably be that there are concerns that there’s no program available in the strata, and those both come from strata members or also from residents, saying there’s no program in their building.”
Duso says Metro Vancouver has been translating key information and sending it to businesses, and will be producing a two-minute video that explains the basics of the rules.
While there have been questions, she says lots of people have been keen to get started.
The regional district has also been working behind the scenes with business associations, strata and housing corporations, institutions, and school districts to make sure they have as much information as possible.
You can also call the Recycling Council of BC hotline at 604-RECYCLE for information on the program, and to get contacts for service providers.
