City of North Vancouver

City of North Vancouver

The City of North Vancouver Curbside Yard Trimmings Collection Program has expanded to accept both food scraps and food soiled paper beginning the first week of May 2012.

The new program is called the Green Can Program and is available to all residences eligible for curbside yard trimmings collection.

Residents may include food scraps in with their yard trimmings for curbside recycling.

Recycle your food scraps in 3 easy steps:

What can I use as a Kitchen Container?

You can use any container to collect food scraps and food-soiled paper in the kitchen. For example, you can reuse large yogurt containers or ice cream buckets with lids or you can use a few sheets of old newspaper to wrap your scraps. You can also buy a kitchen container or small Bag to Earth countertop paper food waste bags from local retailers such as hardware stores or home and garden shops.

Empty your kitchen container into your green can as needed. Freeze or refrigerate meat, fish, bones and plate scrapings until collection day.

Note that kitchen containers are for storing food scraps indoors only and are not accepted curbside.

What can I use as a Green Can?

Use one of your existing 77 L lidded yard trimmings cans. Use your Green Can Decal to cover your Yard Trimmings Decal.

If you don’t have a yard trimmings can, purchase a 77 L lidded can from a local retailer such as a hardware store or home and garden shop. Identify your can with a Green Can Decal. Note that 46 L cans and kitchen containers are not accepted curbside.

Food scraps will not be accepted curbside in the paper yard trimmings bags because they will attract wildlife. If residents have multiple cans of yard trimmings, cans with Yard Trimmings Decals will continue to be accepted.

What Goes In and What Stays Out

For information on acceptable and non-acceptable materials click here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Visit our FAQ Section for more information on the Green Can Program

Backyard Composting

If you backyard compost, please continue to do so and use your Green Can for items that are difficult to compost safely in bear country such as cooked plate scrapings, meat, bones and dairy.

What about bears?

The North Shore is natural bear habitat. Although residents will simply be putting food scraps into the green can instead of the garbage can, we can minimize human-bear conflict by managing our garbage, green can and other bear attractants responsibly. View our tips on being Bear Smart.

Yard Trimmings

Yard trimmings can be placed in your Green Can and in cans with Yard Trimmings Decals. Yard trimmings will also continue to be accepted in paper yard waste bags with tops folded down. For information on preparing your yard trimmings for collection, click here.

More Info

For more information on the City of North Vancouver's Curbside Yard Trimmings Collection Program, visit the City of North Vancouver website.