Skip to content

Surrey exceeds waste diversion expectations

In the first month of a new waste pick-up program, Surrey is now sending 35 per cent less trash to landfills.
17780surreywastecarts
Since Surrey's September conversion to a new waste pick-up

Surrey is already taking a big bite out of the waste headed for landfills.

A new organics diversion program launched in September has already significantly reduced the amount of trash headed for Cache Creek, while increasing the amount of organics being composted.

Metro Vancouver has set a goal of a 70-per-cent waste diversion from landfills by 2015.

Since Surrey's September conversion to a new waste pick-up, where organics and food scraps are picked up separately, the city has increased its diversion from 50 per cent to 66 per cent.

That's all coming from the separate collection of food scraps that would have gone into the regular garbage stream headed for the Cache Creek landfill.

Those table scraps amounted to 26 k.g (57 lbs.) for the month of October, or .83 k.g. (1.9 lbs.) a day of table scraps headed for composting instead of a landfill.

Rob Costanzo, Surrey's deputy operations manager in the engineering department, said he didn't expect to get to this level of diversion for at least a year.

"I'm thrilled with the results after just one month," said Constanzo, adding it's now "inevitabe" that the city will reach 75-per-cent diversion, exceeding the Metro Vancouver 2015 target. "The great news is now that we'll get there sooner than later."