After a year and a half of researching and implementing different strategies to improve waste sorting at Marine Drive, the project team, led by UBC PhD student and SHCS staff member Lucy Binfield, have determined the most effective and achievable model to increase the amount of food waste diverted from the landfill and reduce contamination of other waste streams.

Last winter, the team trialed a food scraps pickup program where staff picked up food scraps inside units. While this system was highly effective, it was less feasible for long-term implementation. So this fall, the team launched a new phase of the program, this time asking residents to place compost pails outside their units on a rotating schedule.

While in-unit pickups ultimately produced the strongest diversion rate, this updated approach addressed student discomfort with staff entering units regularly (even with advance notice), significantly reduced labour costs and still resulted in a significant diversion rate over students disposing of food scraps in central waste sorting areas.

Based on this success, the new system will continue at Marine Drive and, over the summer, will be expanded to another Year Round residence area.

Additionally, the team has started introduced two new donation bins into residence waste sorting areas, a donation bin, for clothing and other goods and pizza box bins, which they have found to fully eliminate contamination in the paper stream (down from 18%). They are also working with a local non-profit who collects refundable beverage containers from residence in support of unhoused Downtown Eastside residents.