City wishes residents a less trash-producing Christmas

For Christmas, Metro Vancouver wants you to give your garbage can a break.

The regional district is trying to get residents to reduce the amount of garbage they produce and Christmas is a particularly problematic period.

Last year, the region sent 4,000 more tonnes of garbage to transfer stations in the first week of January compared to the week that included Christmas and New Year’s Day.

That volume of trash would fill more than 500 garbage trucks.

Metro is suggesting residents go for gifts with less packaging or ones made in B.C. that have a much smaller ecological footprint because they weren’t shipped from overseas.

Using less gift wrap also reduces the amount of garbage created.