The City of Vancouver is extending a pilot beverage container recycling program that was launched last summer as part of the city’s green initiative by installing 100 new recycling bins around the city.
The program was launched by recycling company Encorp Pacific in partnership with the city and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and in consultation with United We Can. It saw beverage container bins installed next to garbage ins at several locations on beaches and Commercial Drive.
Encorp said the program resulted in 94% fewer recyclable beverage containers in garbage bins that were located next to recycling bins.
“This program has been incredibly successful,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “By partnering with Encorp and working closely with United We Can, were moving one step closer to our Greenest City goal of reducing the amount of waste that goes to our landfills by 50%, by 2020.These are the types of creative partnerships the City is working to enable more of.”
Encorp said that one year of recycling beverage containers in the province has many advantages, including:
- saving enough energy to power 46,000 homes;
- taking the equivalent of 27,000 cars off the road; and
- reducing the equivalent of 96,000 tonnes of CO2 being released into the admosphere.
“We’ve invested more than $125,000 in this pilot program and are pleased to see its success,” said Encorp Pacific president and CEO Scott Fraser.
“The pilot program in Vancouver will also serve as a model for potential future Encorp receptacle placements in other B.C. municipalities.”
Encorp recycles one billion containers per year.
