Victoria’s first zero waste stations hit the streets Friday.
The shiny new bins at the corner of Government and Humboldt streets are set to spread across downtown, villages and parks to improve composting and recycling options.
“Over one tonne of waste is generated every day in Victoria’s streets and parks, costing us more than $5 million a year to manage,” Mayor Lisa Helps said in a statement.
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Three bins in each station represent three waste streams: green for organics, blue for recyclables and black for garbage. Decals ask users to scrape their food into the green bin and sort their recyclable items.
“With the proliferation of takeout, it’s our responsibility as a city to ensure we have modern infrastructure that allows people to do the right thing – for our community and for the environment. Providing folks with options to recycle or compost materials that don’t belong in a landfill is an important step in creating a sustainable city,” Helps said.
The zero waste stations also require less contact and lifting for city workers as opposed to the current downtown waste bins that are emptied twice a day and require manual lifting.
A waste audit done in 2019 showed more than 13,000 paper coffee cups were going into Victoria trash cans every day.
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