Metro Vancouver warns against illegal dumping if Spring cleaning
Posted March 22, 2021 8:48 pm.
Last Updated March 22, 2021 8:49 pm.
BURNABY (NEWS 1130) — Metro Vancouver is out with a warning for anyone whose spring cleaning plans involve illegally dumping unwanted items — don’t do it.
According to the Regional District, there was an 8 per cent increase in improperly disposed of items in 2020 with more than 47,000 instances recorded. Cleaning up tens of thousands of abandoned items costs cities in the region close to $6 million each year.
Andrew Marr, director of solid waste planning, says most municipalities have options available for proper disposal.
There’s also a perceived lack of awareness and convenience. So, if you look at the commonly disposed of, illegally dumped things — they’re things like mattresses and furniture, large appliances things that people just find difficult to get rid of,” he says.
“Some of the suggestions we have are to check with your municipality to see whether or not they have a bulky item pickup program, and many municipalities do. If your municipality doesn’t have that you can of course hire a company to take these things away for you for a fee, but the fee is still less than the cost of the fine.”
The district has an online resource to help people figure out what local options they have for getting rid of what they don’t want or can no longer use.
RELATED: Metro Vancouver residents threw out 518 million items of PPE last year
Marr says some people leave things on the street out of a misguided sense that they’re being helpful.
“Many people leave items that they don’t want in a public space with good intentions, they think they’re recycling. Unfortunately, if you leave a chair or a Chesterfield or something out in the rain, it very quickly becomes something nobody wants. It disappears, of course, because the city cleans it up, that’s at your cost that’s your tax dollars doing that. It’s not that somebody picked it up and said, ‘I could use this,'” Marr explains.
“Please don’t leave your unwanted items in a public place thinking that someone’s going to pick it up.”
