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Burnaby man claims city’s waste management system poses health risks

Maggots in a green bin (Photo courtesy: Robert Harrison).
Maggots in a green bin (Photo courtesy: Robert Harrison).

One resident is urging the City of Burnaby to rethink the way it collects garbage, food waste in particular.

On Monday, Robert Harris noticed maggots squirming when he opened his green garbage bin that is meant for yard and kitchen waste.

He says, “Inside the rim, it’s hollow. It’s a perfect area for flies to crawl in and lay zillions of eggs and breed uninterrupted.  I could not stop a constant stream of maggots that seem to be appearing out of nowhere.  Squirming out of a little hole, these little wriggling little white fly larvae in a part of the container that is protected, secure and they can breed constantly.  And inside that hollow area were zillions of maggot casings and maggots.”

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Harrison wants the City of Burnaby to consider different and better containers specifically for compost.

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He says the current bins pose a health risk.

“Combining food scraps with your yard clippings is a bad idea, it’s just a bad combination of ingredients, and you’re just going to attract rats and all kinds of stuff.”

“You got a constant stream of flies in every container in Burnaby and probably other ones that use the same container as well, it’s poorly designed.”

The City of Burnaby replaced his green bin Wednesday, but he says the city needs a better and separate container to collect food scraps.

CKNW has reached out to the City of Burnaby for comment.

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