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Part One: Introduction

Part Three: Living
in Vancouver

Part Four: City
Government and
Public Participation

Garbage and Recycling

Garbage

In 2004, City Council approved implementation of fully automated garbage and yard trimmings collection. City crews provide garbage collection to residential dwellings (single family, duplex and small apartments) as well as some small commercial properties in Vancouver. Other properties are serviced by private contractors.

City garbage collection is provided 50 times per year and charged through a utility fee. The fee amount is determined by the size and number of garbage carts. For more information please call the Garbage and Recycling Hotline (Tel: 604-326-4600).

Yard Trimmings

City crews provide yard trimmings collection to residential properties(single family, duplex and multi-family) in Vancouver. City yard trimmings collection is provided 25 times per year and charged through a utility fee. The fee amount is determined by the size and number of yard trimming carts.

For more information please call the Garbage and Recycling Hotline (Tel: 604-326-4600).

Large loads of yard trimmings are accepted at the Vancouver South Transfer Station at 377 West Kent Avenue North. Call the Garbage and Recycling Hotline at 604-326-4600 for more information.

Recycling

Like most big cities, Vancouver wants to reduce the amount of garbage it has to collect. This reduces the cost of transporting it and the cost of acquiring land for garbage dumps. The City’s recycling and composting services help reduce the amount of garbage we generate. The City has two recycling services, one for people who live in houses, the other for people who live in apartments.

For Houses

• Each house in Vancouver is given a blue plastic box, and two heavy plastic bags. The blue box is for metal and glass food containers, and plastics with a “1”, “2”, “4” or “5” stamped on them, usually on the bottom. Rinse each of these items, remove lids and labels and make cans and plastics as flat as possible.
• The blue bag is for newspapers.
• The yellow bag is for other paper products such as magazines, cardboard, junkmail, phone books etc.
• Do not put anything else in the blue box or bags.
• Put your blue box and recycling bags out before 7:00 a.m. on collection day beside your garbage.
• For more information, please click here.

For Apartments

• Apartment buildings have recycling carts. Prepare items for apartment recycling the same way as for house recycling. For more information, call the Garbage and Recycling Hotline (Tel: 604-323-7710), or click here.
• To view the apartment recycling program brochures in English, Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish and Vietnamese, please click here.

Composting

Composters turn yard and kitchen waste into fertilizer, which can be used on your lawn, garden and plants. Call the Compost Hotline (Tel: 604-736-2250) for more information.

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Hazardous Waste
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Comments or questions? Send us e-mail at baldwin.wong@vancouver.ca.

© 2002, City of Vancouver, Community Services, Social Planning
Last Modified: Monday, October 20, 2008