City of Vancouver is playing catch-up after waste collection delays
City says icy laneways have proven too dangerous for waste collection crews to access
Vancouver resident Dawn Chavda says the city hasn't swung by to collect waste outside her house on Adanac Street for almost three weeks now.
In her area, garbage is picked up every two weeks and there has been another week delay because of the wintry conditions.
"It's getting a little dire," said Chavda.
She lives in a house with two suites that is home to six other people and a few cats. She said the garbage and litter piles up pretty quick, but the extra week delay has meant that the bins no longer close.
"We are storing our garbage in the garage because at least it is cold and the raccoons don't get to it," she said.
The City of Vancouver said it is doing its best to catch-up and is asking residents to be patient.
"We will get there as soon as we can," said Albert Shamess, the director of waste management for the City of Vancouver.
Shamess said last week's snow that was followed by rain has meant some laneways are too icy for crews to access.
"It is too slippery. The other part is safety for the public. We don't want to be trying to get into laneways that are icy and bang into people's properties or cars or anything like that. We also don't want to put our drivers at risk," he said.
He said the areas hit hardest are along Boundary Road, Marine Drive, Kingsway and Hastings.
"Where we can, we are working as much overtime as we can and working on the weekends to catch-up too," he said.
The city has also redirected some snow equipment to salt the laneways that are frozen over.
The city's goal is to focus on areas that are scheduled for collection and then focus on areas that have gone without collection the longest first.
