Waste Management Re duce| Reuse | Re c ycle
UNDERSTANDING WASTE MANAGEMENT Environmental sustainability requires the careful conservation, protection and efficient use of resources, and delivering effective waste management services is critically important to help achieve this goal. Waste management broadly encompasses reducing, reusing, recycling and disposal of solid waste. In Canada, the responsibility for managing and reducing waste is shared among federal, provincial, territorial, regional and municipal governments.
Working in Alignment The City provides a wide range of solid waste services directly to residents and manages solid waste generated throughout its network of parks, civic facilities, streetscapes and other public lands. However, waste management for sectors outside of the City’s authority (such as Industrial, Commercial and Institutional (ICI) and multi-family) is largely governed by other levels of government making partnerships and collaboration important for making progress towards regional diversion and waste reduction goals. The Province of BC requires its regions to develop solid waste management plans. Metro Vancouver worked collaboratively with its municipal members and stakeholders to develop the current Integrated Solid Waste and Resource Management Plan (ISWRMP). This Plan was approved by the Province in 2011 and is scheduled to be updated in the next three years. The ISWRMP continues to provide direction and guidance to local governments on the goals and targets for waste management actions throughout the region, including the aspirational goal to divert 80% of the region’s solid waste. Two of the primary goals of the regional plan are also goals of the ESP: minimizing waste generation, and maximizing reuse, recycling and material recovery. Metro Vancouver’s goal is to increase the waste diversion rate to 80% through a combination of public education as well as regulatory and economic tools, including expanding regional disposal bans. The Federal Government controls international and interprovincial movements of hazardous waste and hazardous recyclable material, as well as identifies best practices that will reduce to a minimum the possible toxic pollution from the management of waste. In addition, the Canada-wide Strategy on Zero Plastic Waste approved 34
City of Coquitlam | Environmental Sustainability Plan
Organics bin
in 2018 includes efforts to ban single-use plastics to reduce plastic waste overall and to work with provinces and territories to develop consistent extended producer responsibility programs, so the same rules for collection and recycling apply to all companies that produce plastic products.
Circular Economy The linear way our economies use and dispose of resources puts pressure on natural systems, communities and public health. Finding new approaches and technologies that create jobs, promote innovation and protect the environment while utilizing materials that are typically thrown away are important aspects in the transition to a low carbon economy. The circular economy has been gaining global momentum in recent years. Defined by the Federal Government as a “new way of doing business that extracts as much value as possible from resources by recycling, repairing, reusing, repurposing, or refurbishing products and materials — eliminating waste and GHG emissions at the design stage”, the circular economy has the long-term goal of designing out the concept of waste. Opportunities for municipalities to align with and support a circular economy are increasingly available within corporate operations as well as through supportive actions within the residential and business communities. The concept is also supported at a regional level. Acceleration of waste reduction and diversion while reducing GHGs is being integrated into Metro Vancouver’s ISWRMP update.
