How B.C.'s 2 biggest cities are trying to curb illegal dumping
Surrey and Vancouver spend millions a year trying to put waste in its place
From construction and demolition waste to old mattresses and furniture, officials in Surrey and Vancouver want residents to put waste in its place rather than dumping it in green spaces, ditches or other inappropriate spaces.
"It impacts the environment, it creates an untidy appearance within municipalities, and it's costly," said Harry Janda, the City of Surrey's solid waste manager.
Surrey and Vancouver continue to scramble to come up with ways to reduce illegal dumping in their communities through education and special waste disposal events. Surrey even uses surveillance cameras to help with enforcement and fines.
"Illegal dumping is a big issue in the City of Vancouver, just as it is in every municipality," said Michelle Harris, associate director for Solid Waste Services at the City of Vancouver.
Vancouver receives around 18,000 service requests a year to clean up illegally dumped items and spends up to $3 million on the issue, said Harris.
From April to September of this year, Surrey cleaned up 3,108 illegal dumping sites.
The cities are also spending to pay for free waste diversion events that are promoted to try to get residents to drop off unwanted items and understand more about the importance of not dumping them.
Surrey has spent, on average, more than $400,000 a year to host the events where up to 100 kilograms of materials such as mattresses, green waste, drywall and furniture can be dropped at no cost in addition to the always-free appliances, electronics, paint, textiles, oil, and books.
Outside of those events, it costs between $15 and $25 to drop items at transfer stations like mattresses and large pieces of furniture like couches.
'Residents are very passionate'
Surrey has a goal to reduce illegal dumping in the city 20 per cent by 2026, and since 2022, has had two recycling and waste centres meant to increase convenience for residents.
Handa says the effort the city is making, combined with the response from residents, resulted in a 13 per cent decrease in illegal dumping so far this year compared to the same period in 2021.
"Residents are very passionate," said Janda. "They're doing an excellent job of diverting their waste."
Numbers from Surrey's various waste pop-up events show that as the programs expanded, so did the response to them with increases in loads and tonnage dropped.
Janda and Harris say people who abandon materials often do so either because they don't know what else to do with them or because they want to avoid fees at landfills, which are currently $134 per tonne, but set to increase $7 per tonne annually in 2025/2026 and $8 per tonne in 2027/2028.
Janda said he's surprised, though, at the time and effort some people put into dumping their garbage when it would be more efficient to deal with it legally.
Surrey has a large item pickup program, where residents can have city workers come to their residents and pick up to six items per year.
"Book an appointment, and we'll come to your home, and we'll pick up the material that you want disposed of," said Janda.
Enforcement
Both cities also use the threat of investigations and fines of up to $10,000 for people caught illegally dumping.
"Yes, we want to ensure that people are being held accountable," said Harris.
Surrey has been using surveillance cameras since 2019, which are moved between known dumping sites to help record evidence of illegal dumpers.
The measure has resulted in 40 tickets worth $1,000 each being issued over the past five years.
Both cities ask residents who see illegally dumped items or people dumping to report them.
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