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Food waste pickup ramps up across Metro Vancouver

Most residents in region will have organic option by October

 

More cities within Metro Vancouver will soon prod their residents to put kitchen scraps and other food waste in green bins for curbside organic pickup instead of throwing it in the garbage.

All single-family homes in North and West Vancouver are being offered kitchen scrap pickup along with their yard waste starting May 1.

Delta made the move in April and it's to be followed by Pitt Meadows and Bowen Island in June and Surrey in October.

By fall, organic food waste pickup will be offered part of curbside service in 16 Metro municipalities, leaving Maple Ridge, Langley City and a few smaller communities still to go.

Diverting organic material, which makes up 30 per cent of Metro's waste stream, is a big plank in the region's strategy to raise its recycling rate to 70 per cent by 2015, from 55 per cent now.

Organics now go to a compost facility, but plans are in the works for other uses, including a biofuel plant in Surrey.

Eventually, Metro is to ban food waste disposal in the garbage, requiring all residents to use their curbside option.

Some cities have cut regular garbage pickup to once every two weeks with the launch of organic pickup, while others are keeping weekly garbage pickup for now.

"We're going to be doing a weekly pickup until we feel everybody is very comfortable," said Delta Mayor Lois Jackson, adding any change to biweekly would be carefully considered.