The City of Delta is allowing clothing donation bins — a certain kind, anyhow.
The bins are made by Green Inspiration, a company that works to keep used items from entering landfills, and they’re made so that people can’t climb inside them, said Hugh Davies, the city’s manager of property use.
“We asked Green Inspiration to come back after doing some testing themselves and they’ve made some modifications to the bins that we’re satisfied people cannot get trapped in them,” he said.
So far, the bins are only allowed on private properties and owners have to take responsibility for anything that happens with them.
This could be the future of donation bins, Davies said.
“We just want to make sure they’re safe and people can’t reach into them and we expect a couple more bin companies will be coming back with results,” he said.
Diabetes Canada has made similar bins, and the City of Delta has approved them too, but they haven’t yet been set up in the municipality.
The bins have also been found in Burnaby, however the municipal government there advised non-profits to review the bins’ safety and take appropriate measures, including ceasing operations and removing them from private property as required.
Clothing donation bins were banned across many cities in Metro Vancouver after three people died from being trapped inside them between November and January.
So far there are about six bins across Delta, down from the 70 that were situated there earlier this year.