Tuesday October 14 2014
The
Leader
▲ Surrey Board of Trade hosts annual Police Officer of the Year Awards 3
ARE WE HEADING IN THE GREEN DIRECTION?
RECYCLING RATE RISING ACROSS REGION
▶ BUT HIGHER PROPERTY TAXES MAY BE ON THE HORIZON TO MANAGE WASTE JEFF NAGEL
Metro Vancouver’s recycling rate climbed to 60 per cent in 2013 – just shy of a 70-per-cent target the regional district is committed to reaching next year. The number is up from 58 per cent in 2012 and came almost entirely from a four-per-cent increase in the single-family residential recycling rate, which Metro officials attribute to the move to mandatory organic food waste pick-up for those homes and a decrease in the frequency of garbage pick-up to just biweekly in Surrey and Vancouver. “We’ve achieved a lot but there’s still a long way to go,” Metro solid waste manager Paul Henderson said. Improved recycling of at least 70 per cent is a key assumption Metro has made in estimating it must build a new waste-to-energy plant capable of handling 370,000 tonnes per year of garbage that the region would no longer truck to the Cache Creek landfill. A higher aspirational target of 80 per cent diversion by 2020 would reduce but not eliminate the need for a potential second incinerator. Recycling diversion rates for multi-family residential and industrial/comcontinued on page 3
CHARGED UP ABOUT ELECTRIC VEHICLES
▶ USE OF CAR CHARGING STATIONS IN B.C. DOUBLES JEFF NAGEL
Surrey-based Powertech Labs says the use of 350 charging stations it tracks has more than doubled in the last year. BOAZ JOSEPH
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continued on page 4
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More drivers are plugging into B.C.’s public electric vehicle charging stations, according to new statistics. Surrey-based Powertech Labs, a BC Hydro subsidiary, says the use of 350 charging stations it tracks has more than
doubled in the last year. It recorded 3,745 charging sessions in August, up from 1,684 in the same month a year earlier. The data doesn’t cover all stations – another 200 locations aren’t tracked by Powertech.
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