Region wide, garbage from residents (houses, apartments, condos) counts for nearly a third of the region’s waste (nearly 1 million tonnes per year).

The region’s new waste management plan sets the following targets for residents: 

• Increasing recycling rates for apartments and condos from 14% (current) to 30%
• Increasing recycling rates for houses from 44% (current) to 65%

Businesses also have a big role to play in raising the regional recycling rate.
 Businesses

For all single family homes in the region to average a 65% recycyling rate, we need 80% of households to recycle 80% of their waste everyday.

Committing to reducing your waste decreases the amount of waste going to our landfills. Of course, it’s not just about recycling. All of us can work towards making less waste in the first place.

Visit Metro Vancouver’s resources for ideas on where to start making changes.

• Six to fix - Six of the biggest areas of waste; easier than you think to fix 
• Metro Vancouver Recycles - an online, searchable data base linking you to hundreds of places to take back your stuff