response from The City of Vancouver

Recently, we conducted a poll here on ChangeEverything.ca where we asked you about the idea of mandatory recycling in our region. 91% of people who responded voted, "yes" to the idea of implementing mandatory recycling (you can see the poll and even vote if you have not yet by clicking here) I thought that the City would be interested in these results so I sent an email to the mayors office. Here is what I got back (published with permission)

Hi Kate: In our region, recycling is made mandatory through material bans that restrict what's allowed to go in the garbage. Some of the materials that are banned from the garbage in our region include paper and cardboard, large appliances, hazardous wastes (paint, pesticides, solvents, fuels, etc.) and drywall. This year we expect the region to ban yard trimmings, all blue box recyclables and certain electronics. The City of Vancouver has already passed the yard trimmings and blue box recyclables bans. The bans are enforced by regional inspectors and other staff where the garbage is dumped, so the enforcement is done against the hauling companies. The hauling companies in turn communicate that requirement to their customers to encourage recycling and sell the company's recycling services. As well, the region and the municipalities advertise those bans to the private sector and to residents from time to time. For residential properties, the utility fee for the City's recycling collection services is mandatory pay which further encourages recycling. And, of course, recycling itself has been quite heavily promoted by the region, the municipalities and the industry recycling programs. The enforcement and promotional strategy outlined above has worked relatively well in our region. City of Vancouver polls show that . . . - 57 percent of residents think that recycling is everyone's responsibility and there's no excuse for not recycling all the time; and - another 39 percent think recycling makes sense, but they want it to be convenient. With those very high positive attitudes and the resulting high participation in recycling in our region (on the order of 90 percent), we see very high diversion rates. For example, with paper and cardboard which has been banned from many years, we see only about 10 percent recyclable paper and cardboard left in the remaining garbage. We therefore haven't had to consider enforcement of recycling at the level of the individual or at individual properties. That kind of enforcement of recycling is very rare both because other options are quite effective and because of the high cost of administration and staff to carry out that type of enforcement effectively. Although, like the bans discussed above, enforcement at individual properties may be an effective tool in the promotion of recycling however widespread the actual enforcement is. The region and the municipalities are in the process of drafting our next solid waste management plan. As mentioned above, more bans of other types of materials are planned. The region also plans to decrease the percentage of banned materials allowed in a load of garbage, increase the amount of enforcement and the advertising of the bans. Whether that will be enough to reach our next waste diversion goal remains to be seen and will have to be evaluated. It may be that as we move ahead with more waste diversion, we have to implement other types of enforcement programs.

Lindsay Moffit Recycling Coordinator - City of Vancouver