A red gasoline pump nozzle is shown next to a warning label depicting people walking in a dry, barren landscape. The label states that fuel use contributes to climate change, drought, and famine.

Our Horizon – Green Information at the Gas Pump

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It’s always inspiring to encounter passionate people who are trying to make a difference to the environment. It’s all the more impressive when they are setting an example at a young age.

Recently Emily Kelsall, a 16-year-old West Vancouver resident contacted us about a non-profit campaign she believes in called Our Horizon. This project is actively working toward changing the way that government and the general public think about fuel consumption by placing information graphics on fuel pumps. Similar to warning labels on cigarettes, they believe that adding this visual reminder to gas nozzles will help prompt consumers to be more mindful about the long term effects of fossil fuels on climate change.

Our Horizon Fuel Pump. Source: http://ourhorizon.org/

Rob Shirkey, a former lawyer and the founder of the project, delivers an excellent TED talk on why this simple idea could have a lasting impact on the public. By inspiring individuals who care about the environment, Our Horizon also encourages people to speak to their local municipal officials to help make bigger changes in their communities and across the country. In the Lower Mainland, Emily has gotten a lot of support and media coverage. She has been featured in the Globe & Mail, and on Global TV, and the list of companies and individuals who endorse this idea keeps growing.

At Green Coast Rubbish, we regularly see how small changes in behavior can add up over time. Sometimes it can just take a little reminder to jog our brains into making better greener choices. We wish all the success to Emily and the Our Horizon project in getting these information labels at gas stations in Metro Vancouver in the near future!

Green bins filled with discarded food scraps, including lettuce, grapes, berries, and a red rose, used for composting organic waste.

Disposal Ban of Organics in Metro Vancouver

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Vancouver continues to move toward its goal of becoming the Greenest City by 2020. By imagining solutions and opportunities that can help residents and businesses to more effectively deal with household waste, they get closer every year. It’s estimated that nearly 35-40% of everything that we throw away is food waste; if diverted into a composting system, this adds up to a substantial amount kept out of our landfills. Which is why, starting in 2015, Metro Vancouver will be instating a ban on disposing organics and food waste into regular garbage bins.

There are huge community and environmental benefits to composting. As the food waste breaks down through natural processes, it can create valuable fertilizers that can help to enrich the soil with potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus. It reduces overall greenhouse gas emissions and lengthens the life of our existing landfills, saving valuable space and local resources.

For some eye-opening stats on the amount of organic waste produced every day, as well for solutions on how to responsibly dispose of compastable waste visit our past blog Getting Serious About Organic Waste Reduction.  If you are interested  to learn more about the process that your organic waste goes through when it is processed you can check-out Part 2 of our Organic Waste Reduction blog.

Some things that can go into the compost bin:

  • Fruit & vegetable scraps
  • Eggshells, dairy
  • Meat & fish bones
  • Teabags
  • Coffee filters & grounds
  • Breads, pasta, rice
  • Food soiled paper products (pizza boxes, napkins, cardboard egg cartons)
  • Grass, leaves, weeds, plants
  • Cooked food & grease

Some prohibited items:

  • Any type of plastic (including compostable/biodegradable plastic bags)
  • Rocks, soil
  • Diapers
  • Animal waste
  • Wood products & lumber
  • Branches bigger than 10 cm (4″)  in diameter, and more than 0.5m (1.6ft) in length

These developments are very much in-line with the ideology of Green Coast Rubbish. We’ve seen the evidence firsthand of how much these compostable items can add up – in 2013 alone, we diverted 30.39 tonnes of organic material! By actively working together toward creating composting solutions with Metro Vancouver, we can all contribute to the success of this important program in our communities.

For more information about composting and the upcoming ban on organics, check out the Metro Vancouver website, and the City of Vancouver’s Green Bin Program.

Recycle Your Christmas Tree!

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Yet another Christmas day has come and past and now you are faced with the decision of what to do with your Christmas tree? We at Green Coast are asking you not to toss it, but recycle it responsibly! 

If you live in Metro Vancouver there are plenty of options for recycling or composting your green beauty. To help you achieve this, we have put together a comprehensive list of local facilities, tree chipping events and environmentally friendly solutions for recycling your Christmas tree this holiday season.

North Shore

First and foremost, you can compost your Christmas tree by including it with your regular curbside “Green Can” collection materials. Just be sure that it is cut and bundled into piles no larger than 3 feet by 1 foot. Or, if that seems like too much work, you can support one of the many local tree chipping events listed below:

North Vancouver Lions Club

Location: Karen Magnussen Community Centre – 2300 Kirkstone Road, North Vancouver, BC.

Location: Highland Chevron – 3150 Edgemont Blvd, North Vancouver, BC.

Date & Time: Jan. 6th from 9:30am to 3:30pm

Cost: By donation

Seymour Scouts (11th and 13th)

Location: Parkgate Village Shopping Centre – Mount Seymour Road, North Vancouver, BC.

Date: Jan. 6th from 9:00am to 4:30pm

Cost: By donation

City of North Vancouver Firefighters

Location: RONA – 1160 East 3rd Street, North Vancouver, BC.

Date & Time: Jan. 5th from 8:30am to 4:30pm

Cost: By donation

Ambleside Tiddlycove Lions Club

Location: Ambleside Park – 13th Street and Marine Drive, West Vancouver, BC.

Date & Time: Jan. 1st to Jan. 6th – Weekdays: 12:00pm to 4:00pm; Weekends: 10:00am to 4:00pm

Cost: By donation

Source: North Shore Recycling Program 

Vancouver

For residents of Vancouver with regular green waste pickup, you can include your Christmas tree with your curbside recycling until January 31st. To leave it curbside, the tree must be unbagged and placed at least 3 feet from the wheeled carts before 7:00am on collection day.

Alternatively, you can drop your tree off for free at the Vancouver Transfer Station Recycling Depot-377 West Kent Avenue N, Vancouver, BC. If neither of those options work, you can always drop off your tree at any of the tree recycling events listed below:

Lions Club Christmas Tree Recycling

Location: Kerrisdale Community Community Centre – 5851 West Blvd, Vancouver, BC

Location: Kits Beach – Parking lot by Cornwall Street and Arbutus Street, Vancouver, BC.

Location: Sunset Beach Upper parking lot by Pacific Boulevard and Broughton Street, Vancouver, BC.

Location:  RONA – 2727 East 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC.

Dates: January 7th to 8th

Christmas Tree Recycling at UBC

Location: UBC Botanical Garden – 6804 South West Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC.

Dates and Time: Dec. 26 to Jan 8th from 9:30am to 4:30pm

Cost: $5 donation (suggested)

Burnaby

If you are a resident of Burnaby, you can drop off your Christmas tree for free at the Burnaby Yard Waste Depot-4800 Still Creek Avenue, Burnaby, BC.

Richmond

Single-family homes in the City of Richmond can include their Christmas trees with their curbside pickup, but make sure to cut and bundle the tree into 3 feet x 2 feet piles. You can also take your tree to the City of Richmond Recycling Depot-5555 Lynas Lane, Richmond, BC.

Source: Vancity Buzz 

Please recycle or compost your Christmas tree this holiday season. It’s the green thing to do! 

Bikes for Tykes: A Cycle of Giving

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Much like our good friends at Obsession: Bikes we too think that every kid should experience the joy and excitement of riding a bike.  The opportunities, the freedom, and of course the simple pleasure a bike can bring into a child’s life is unparalleled and is something that every child should experience.

With that admirable goal in mind, Obsession has established a “Bikes for Tykes” program on the North Shore of Vancouver. The Bikes for Tykes program was founded in 1987 in Naples, Florida and has since delivered close to 18,000 reconditioned bicycles to some very lucky children. With 25 chapters in the US and 3 in Canada the program has been a massive success, to say the least.

The concept of the program is simple, you donate your previously owned kids bikes to be restored to “like new” condition and then Obsession, in conjunction with other local partners, will deliver the revitalized bikes to underprivileged children across the North Shore for Christmas. 

Since 2005, Obsession has delivered 100 refurbished bikes to kids on the Shore each Christmas, and Green Coast is on board to help them reach and exceed this number for 2012.

If you have a bike to donate but don’t have the means or the time to get it to Obsession, no need to worry. We will happily pick-up your child’s bike, scooter, or anything with two wheels for free and deliver it to Obsession!  Just contact us and mention the Bikes for Tykes program and we’ll take care of the rest.

Help make this a memorable Christmas for children on the North Shore, because when it comes to bikes, we’re all still kids at heart!