Vancouver doubling down on reducing illegal dumping

The city of Vancouver is stepping up services to deal with a growing problem: illegal dumping.

READ MORE: Vancouver’s illegal dumping problem grows

In the weeks to come, there’ll be more crews picking up trash in downtown lanes: seven nights a week, up from four. Crews will be checking in on lanes citywide five days a week, up from three.

Street sweepers will be out 250 hours a week — up from 150 currently — and a new pilot project is being launched to cut down on the city’s cigarette butt mess. And the city is even testing surveillance cameras at dumping hot spots.

There will also be 300 more litter cans — and they’ll be bigger.

“We have seen overfilled litter cans and our services are increasing to try and adapt to that, but there’s a real issue around responsibility that we need to look at as well,” said Albert Shamess, the city’s director of waste management.

Normally, people would simply haul their trash to the dump, but not everyone in Vancouver owns a car, said Shamess. The possibility of a collection service for furniture and large household items is being explored.

“What sort of service change would we need to try and make this a more streamlined process to get to them before it gets to the back alley,” said Shamess.