The City of Port Coquitlam provides garbage, recycling and green/kitchen waste collection to approximately 11,000 residents every week.

Over the last decade, Port Coquitlam residents have been diverting more and more of their green waste and recycling away from the landfill. In 1997, only 15% of the waste collected was recycling, compared with 23% in 2008. As well, green waste diversion increased from 16% to 26% between 2002 and 2008.

Even with this positive trend, we will send an estimated 7,200 tonnes of garbage to the landfill in 2009. A similar amount of household waste was diverted into green/kitchen waste and recycling carts.

That amounts to approximately 600 tonnes of garbage every month, equivalent to:

• 600,000 kilograms or 1,320,000 pounds or,
• more than 3 Boeing 747 jumbo jets (empty Boeing 747s weigh approximately 181 tonnes) or,
• 6 blue whales (blue whales can weigh over 100 tonnes) or,
• 275 killer whales (male killer whales weigh between 3,628 and 5,442 kilograms while females weigh between 1,362 and 3,628 kilograms) or,
• 86 elephants (an African bull elephant weighs up to 7,000 kilograms)

The City is working to achieve a 75% diversion rate for recycling and green waste, through waste-reduction initiatives such as the expanded Kitchen Waste Collection Program and the introduction of alternate-week garbage collection in 2010.

This is an achievable figure, based on a 2009 Metro Vancouver waste audit that shows that almost 75% of what we throw away in Port Coquitlam is green/kitchen waste or recycling, including:

• Paper: 13%
• Plastic: 13%
• Compostable organics: 48%

More information
You can find more information about how you can divert more of your household waste away from the landfill on the following pages:

• Kitchen Green Waste Collection Program
• Recycling
• Alternate-Week Garbage Collection