Maple Ridge council is not passing a bylaw banning clothing donations bins, but solutions appear to be coming and unsafe bins are being withdrawn voluntarily.
The bins have been responsible for eight fatalities across Canada as people became stuck in them, including the death of Anita Hauck. She was a homeless woman and advocate for people living on the streets in Maple Ridge, and for whom Anita Place Tent City has been named.
The most recent death was a man found dead in a clothing donation bin in West Vancouver in December. That sparked four Lower Mainland municipalities to completely ban the bins, most recently Pitt Meadows.
One organization grappling with this issue is responsible for about 300 bins across the Lower Mainland, including some in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.
The Developmental Disabilities Association has managed to deploy an older design of bin that is safer, while removing all of its new bins.
“We’re in talks with municipalities about clothing bins, but we’ve swapped all the mailbox-chute bins with open-chute bins,” said Kevin Chan, communications manager for the organization.
He explained the dangerous design of bins has a “mailbox chute” that is designed to deter theft.
The older design, that the association has now put back on the streets, is a simple chute, so if people get inside the bins, they can get back out, because there are “no pinch points,” explained Chan.
He said the organization expects there to be some losses of donated clothing, but readily accepts that for a solution to the problem.
“We do [expect some losses], but community safety is our top priority,”added Chan. “We’ve been looking for ways to improve them.”
He said the mailbox-chute bins are in storage until a retrofit can be found, and he noted the UBC Okanagan engineering school is working on how to make them safer. He noted that the mailbox-chute bins are a common design in the Lower Mainland.
Maple Ridge city engineer David Pollock said municipal staff has been directed to work with organizations that use clothing donation bins to make them safe. He said the city’s approach is to recognize that there is a benefit to the bins, which garner donation revenue for non-profit organizations.
He noted some organizations are appear to be pulling their donations bins off the streets voluntarily. On an earlier report to council, in the summer of 2017, staff noted there were as many as eight bins at different locations around the city. However, when bylaws enforcement staff went looking for bins in the city earlier this month, they found only three left.
He said one is a different design from those causing fatalities, and one is removed from public access, but staff put clothes in it, and the city is still in dialogue with the organization about another.
Inclusion B.C. is one organization that announced it would be taking all of its 146 bins out of service until they could be modified and made safe.
“We will continue to work with our bin manufacturer, municipal authorities, design experts and community partners to formalize and promote the adoption of industry-wide safety standards to keep our communities safe,” it said in its release.
B.C. Children’s Hospital has also removed its donation bins. Spokesperson Nuzda Stenner said they are also looking at making them safe.
“Because of the tragedies that have taken place, we have to retrofit,” she said. “So people can’t get in there.”
She noted the organization has a bin at the Maple Ridge recycling centre, operated in partnership with the Salvation Army, but it is left unlocked, so that anyone who gets inside can get out.
Leanne Koehn, of Ridge Meadows Recycling Society, said the bins are kept in a gated area that is security patrolled at night. She said danger presented by the bins is well known, because of Hauck’s tragic death.
“There’s an awareness now – the bins are in view of the public and the staff.”
And she said they have to be emptied regularly because they fill up. Clothes are not garbage.
“There is a huge industry for used clothes and textiles,” she said, noting they are sorted for resale, or turned into other products including industrial wipes and insulation.
“We’re able to continue to provide that service.”
