To protect everyone, including our collection crews, please ensure all personal hygiene products such as used facial tissues, paper towels and paper napkins and similar items are disposed of in plastic garbage bags.
Green Can picked up BEFORE garbage
To minimize wildlife conflict, your curbside Green Can will be picked up BEFORE garbage. Do not place out the night before. To ensure collection,
place at the curb no earlier than 5:30am and no later than 7:30am on collection day.
Food scraps make up 40 per cent of our household waste. Use your curbside Green Can or multi-family Green bin to dispose of food waste.
- Place food scraps and food-soiled paper together in your apartment building’s Green bin, or with yard trimmings in a 77-litre can with a lid and a Green Can decal if you use curbside collection
- Most multi-family Green bins do not allow yard waste (grass clippings, leaves, and yard trimmings). Check with your building or strata manager for details.
- Curbside Green Cans (food scraps and yard trimmings) are collected by City crews every week
✔ Bread, toast, cereal, baked goods & pizza
✔ Cake, cookies, pie, muffins & candies
✔ Coffee grounds & filters, teabags (no silk bags)
✔ Dairy products, cheese & yogurt (no containers)
✔ Eggs & egg shells
✔ Fruit, vegetables, salads, corn cobs, corn husks & pumpkins
✔ Meat, fish & shellfish (including bones)
✔ Nuts & nutshells
✔ Pasta, couscous, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, flour & grains
✔ Sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressing, syrups, peanut butter, jams & jellies (no containers)
✔ Small quantities of fats & oils (soak into used paper towels or newspaper)
✔ Lard, gravy, butter & margarine
✔ Popsicle sticks, small wooden utensils, toothpicks, wood chips, sawdust from untreated wood & cold wood ashes (in paper bags)
✔ Cardboard egg cartons
✔ Paper plates
✔ Plants and yard trimmings
✔ Houseplants (without soil)
✔ Weeds, plants, flowers
✔ Yard trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, small branches and prunings (curbside collection only)
✘ Plastic bags & wrap, Styrofoam
✘ Biodegradable or compostable plastic bags
✘ Plastic containers and plastic cutlery, even those marked biodegradable or compostable
✘ Bread tags and twist ties
✘ Foil wrap, containers and pie plates
✘ Metal cans or glass jars
✘ Cereal and cracker box liners
✘ Chip and cookie bags
✘ Pet food bags and other lined bags
✘ Make-up remover pads, cotton swabs and balls
✘ Butter wrappers (foil)
✘ Dental floss, rubber bands
✘ Soiled diapers, baby wipes
✘ Cigarettes and butts
✘ Vacuum contents and bags
✘ Pet feces or kitty Iitter
✘ Coffee cups and lids
✘ Paper towels, paper napkins, facial tissues
✘ Paper towel & toilet paper rolls
Garbage is the cause of 80 per cent of bear-human interactions on the North Shore. Keep your garbage and green can clean in order to keep bears (and other animals such as raccoons and crows) away.
- STORE
Keep the Green Can in a secure location such as a garage, shed or lockable storage container until collection day. Put Green Cans out only on the morning of your collection day, before 7:30am, not the night before.
- WRAP
Wrap food scraps in newspaper, paper towels or paper bags to reduce odours and help keep your can clean (do not use biodegradable/compostable plastic bags).
- FREEZE
Store food scraps in the freezer until collection day.
- CLEAN
Wash the bin regularly with a mild detergent or a water & vinegar solution.
Learn more about reducing human-bear conflict
Green Can: What Goes In
✔ Bread, toast, cereal, baked goods & pizza
✔ Cake, cookies, pie, muffins & candies
✔ Coffee grounds & filters, teabags (no silk bags)
✔ Dairy products, cheese & yogurt (no containers)
✔ Eggs & egg shells
✔ Fruit, vegetables, salads, corn cobs, corn husks & pumpkins
✔ Meat, fish & shellfish (including bones)
✔ Nuts & nutshells
✔ Pasta, couscous, potatoes, rice, oatmeal, flour & grains
✔ Sauces, mayonnaise, salad dressing, syrups, peanut butter, jams & jellies (no containers)
✔ Small quantities of fats & oils (soak into used paper towels or newspaper)
✔ Lard, gravy, butter & margarine
✔ Popsicle sticks, small wooden utensils, toothpicks, wood chips, sawdust from untreated wood & cold wood ashes (in paper bags)
✔ Cardboard egg cartons
✔ Paper plates
✔ Plants and yard trimmings
✔ Houseplants (without soil)
✔ Weeds, plants, flowers
✔ Yard trimmings, leaves, grass clippings, small branches and prunings (curbside collection only)
Green Can: What Stays Out
✘ Plastic bags & wrap, Styrofoam
✘ Biodegradable or compostable plastic bags
✘ Plastic containers and plastic cutlery, even those marked biodegradable or compostable
✘ Bread tags and twist ties
✘ Foil wrap, containers and pie plates
✘ Metal cans or glass jars
✘ Cereal and cracker box liners
✘ Chip and cookie bags
✘ Pet food bags and other lined bags
✘ Make-up remover pads, cotton swabs and balls
✘ Butter wrappers (foil)
✘ Dental floss, rubber bands
✘ Soiled diapers, baby wipes
✘ Cigarettes and butts
✘ Vacuum contents and bags
✘ Pet feces or kitty Iitter
✘ Coffee cups and lids
✘ Paper towels, paper napkins, facial tissues
✘ Paper towel & toilet paper rolls
Critter-proof Your Green Can
Garbage is the cause of 80 per cent of bear-human interactions on the North Shore. Keep your garbage and green can clean in order to keep bears (and other animals such as raccoons and crows) away.
- STORE
Keep the Green Can in a secure location such as a garage, shed or lockable storage container until collection day. Put Green Cans out only on the morning of your collection day, before 7:30am, not the night before.
- WRAP
Wrap food scraps in newspaper, paper towels or paper bags to reduce odours and help keep your can clean (do not use biodegradable/compostable plastic bags).
- FREEZE
Store food scraps in the freezer until collection day.
- CLEAN
Wash the bin regularly with a mild detergent or a water & vinegar solution.
Learn more about reducing human-bear conflict
- Use your 77 litre Green Bin for grass clippings, yard trimmings and food scraps
- Yard trimmings also accepted in kraft paper bags with folded tops (but no food scraps please)
- If you use kraft paper bags, please keep them dry until collection day
- Bundle twigs and branches with biodegradable string or twine. No wire, nylon rope or plastic strapping. Place beside, not inside, Green Cans)
- Max bundle size: 1m long x 30cm in diameter - max branch thickness 7.5cm
- Max weight20kg per can, bag or bundle.
Backyard Composting
You can compost most food scraps and yard trimmings in a backyard composter, and skip the Green Can. Composted organic materials turns into a nutrient-rich soil that you can use to feed your lawn and garden. Metro Vancouver has lots of great information on backyard composting.
In this single family guide learn how and where to recycle items and find tips to create less garbage.
In this multi family guide, learn how and where to recylce items and use your buildings green bin.
Get in touch
Curbside: Missed collection (Garbage/Green Can)?
Contact City Operations 604-987-7155
Need Green Can decals?
Pick up at City Hall or call 604-987-7155
Missed recycling pick up? Need bags/bins
Contact Emterra Environmental 778-589-3221 or NV.CSR@emterra.ca
Download CityCollect App
Apple store / Google Play
North Shore Transfer Station & Recycling Depot
30 Riverside Drive, North Vancouver 604-681-5600
Recycling Support
Questions about how/where to recycle an item?
Recycling Council of BC hotline
604-732-9253 | hotline@rcbc.ca
Building/Business: Need recycling coaching or support?
Contact our Zero Waste Coach 604-983-7331 | zerowaste@cnv.org