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
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
✔ Food-soiled paper and paper food packaging (not wax-lined)
✔ Paper towels, paper napkins, facial tissues
✔ Paper towel & toilet paper rolls
✔ 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)
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
- 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).
- 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 and 30cm in diameter. Max branch thickness: 7.5cm.
- Max weight per can, bag or bundle: 20kg.
Green Can decals are available at City Hall (8:30am to 5pm, Mon-Fri) or call 604-987-7155 to have one mailed to you.
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 IT: 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 IT: Wrap food scraps in newspaper, paper towels or paper bags to reduce odours and help keep your can clean (never use biodegradable or compostable plastic bags).
- FREEZE IT: Store food scraps in the freezer until collection day.
- CLEAN IT: Wash the bin regularly with a mild detergent or a water & vinegar solution.
Learn more about reducing human-bear conflict
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. Learn more at: Metro Vancouver Backyard Composting information