Regardless of its impact, I am a vocal citizen. I e-mail, write letters, and even call politicians when I don't like what is going on in their district?
Why do I do this?
Because I can! That is the beauty of a western society, you are allowed to voice your opinions and sometimes they even gets some response.
Because I can! That is the beauty of a western society, you are allowed to voice your opinions and sometimes they even gets some response.
However, in this complex entanglement called beauracracy, we cannot always guarantee our questions get heard.
This was not the case when I e-mail the Vancouver City Hall about its inefficient recycling progarm.
Not only did they get back to me in a timely manner (only 3 days), a representitive from the Waste Managment branch, Bob McLennan, wrote me a detailed e-mail addressing my concerns.
I was very touched by the effort he put into addressing my concerns.
I was very touched by the effort he put into addressing my concerns.
Here is my initial e-mail:
To whom this may concern- I am an enthsiastic resident of Vancouver who is quite excited for Gregor Robertson's new term. I read his platform and I highly admire his commitment to making Vancouver more environmentally sustainable. However, I strongly beleive that Vancovuer's method of recycling is inefficient and burdensome for many residents of Vancovuer. As a resident, I am more then happy to recycle and take the time to separate all the recycling. Unfortunately though, it has not been an easy task. I have had my recycling bags and boxes stolen and as a result garbage men have not been sympathetic with my makeshift boxes, no matter how clearly marked they are. As a concerned and active citizen of this wonderful I'd like to provide some examples of how Vancovuer could upgrade thier recycling program to make it easier for residents to use, and better for the environment as a whole.
1) Sorting out the recycling into making bags and boxes is not efficient.The city of San Francisco has one blue bin where all the recycling goes and they have a conveyor belt that sorts out the various numbered recycling products. This would make recycling so easy for residents they could not have an excuse for not doing it. It would also make it easier for the garbage men to just collect one large bin instead of having to pick up several items that might get mixed up or shuffled around.Check out their website to see how their program works: http://www.sfrecycling.com/residential/recycling.php?t=r
2) Why no composting program? I'm sure you have heard complaints before about how other major cities in Canada have city-wide compost programs whereas Vancouver does not. I have discussed with my fellow peers and employees that if there was a city-wide composting program they would be happy to have a compost. Here is a link to the City of Toronto's composting program to get some ideas of how this can be implemented here: http://www.toronto.ca/compost/index.htm I understand we are in a rough spot; with the recession, the olympics, and the snow, making changes in the Recycling system does not seem possible right now. Nevertheless, I'd like to quote Nelson Mandela in saying, "Many things seem impossible until they are done." Please contact me with any questions or concens. I would be happy to help implement all or any of these ideas. Thank you for your time.
And this is his very detailed response:
Thank you for your email and your interest in recycling. I hope the following will provide you with some background on current initiatives as well as the regional strategy for diverting solid waste from disposal. In the last decade the Province, Metro Vancouver Regional District, the municipalities, industry and business have pursued recycling and composting aggressively. Our region is now at a 52 percent diversion rate, which is one of the highest in the world.
Achieving this was a large amount of work and maintaining it requires significant resources on the part of everyone involved. There are 5R’s that are commonly referred to for developing solid waste management strategies.
In order from most desirable to least desirable they are:
- Reduce – consumers make wise choices that reduce amount of waste generated;
- Reuse – use material again in the same or a new function; - Recycle – reprocess materials into new materials;
- Recover – recover materials or energy from mixed waste stream;
- Residuals – management of remaining material.
Regarding your questions: 1) Sorting out the recycling...We routinely consider options to improve our solid waste management operations. In doing so, we also examine the feasibility, and the pros and cons of potential operational changes on a broader scale, including but not necessarily limited to (in no particular order): -budget/financial impacts; -worker and public safety; -sustainability and specifically, environmental impacts; and, -market conditions. The current blue-box & bags recycling program in Vancouver is well established and produces high quality recyclable materials. Concerns with changing to a single cart style recycling collection program include higher recycling program costs and higher contamination of recyclable materials reducing the marketability of the materials and increasing residuals (garbage) during processing. If you require more detail on the specific issue of single-stream style recycling materials collection, please contact me at your convenience.
2) Why no composting program?Metro Vancouver, the regional government, is developing a new regional Solid Waste Management Plan and the City of Vancouver is participating in that process. The Plan is anticipated to include initiatives such as implementation of food waste collection and processing. For details on the goals and strategies being discussed for the next Plan, visit the Metro Vancouver website at: http://www.metrovancouver.org/services/solidwaste/planning/Pages/default.aspx Food waste processing facilities are more complex to design, site, construct and operate compared to yard trimmings composting facilities. From a sustainability perspective, it's also important to assess and weigh the benefits of centralized food waste processing against the economic costs of separating, collecting and processing another stream of materials, the environmental impacts of the additional fleet of trucks (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions), and the environmental, social impacts and general difficulty of locating a processing facility (e.g. odours). Food waste collection and centralized processing programs are also very expensive relative to our current waste management systems. Cost drivers include the capital cost of a processing facility, transportation costs, and collection equipment and labour costs. Unit costs are particularly high given the small quantity of material relative to what is diverted in our existing programs. Metro Vancouver has been reviewing organics diversion options including reviewing programs in other regions and assessing collection and processing options, as well as local market conditions for the sale of the compost. Metro Vancouver has solicited proposals for conceptual organics processing plant designs and proposed siting and is currently reviewing those proposals. Once a food waste processing facility is in place in the region, the next steps would include municipalities implementing food waste collection programs. Please feel free to call me if you have any questions or require further information.
Regards,
Bob McLennan, P.Eng. Solid Waste Management Branch City of Vancouver, 453 W. 12th Ave., Vancouver BC V5Y 1V4
Hey sometimes you can't always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you might just find that you get heard!
So, if you live in Vancouver and want to bitch about something of importance, go ahead its easy.
Thanks Bob!
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