A Metro Vancouver appeal to residents of multi-family dwellings to properly dispose of their food scraps didn’t go down too well with one long-time Richmondite.
The woman, who only wanted to be identified by the initials W.C., claims to be the greenest person she knows and has been going out of her way to “save the planet” from harmful greenhouse gases.
But after reading Metro Vancouver’s urging of residents in apartments and townhouses to use the green bin for food scraps, the woman contacted the Richmond News to vent about the stink emanating from Harvest Power’s composting facility in the east of the city.
“I’ve been properly disposing of food scraps for the last couple of years; I’m a very green-thinking person and I’m all for keeping the food scraps out of the garbage,” she said.
“But a couple of months ago, I just felt I’d had enough of the smell and I’m not going to do it anymore.”
The woman, who would only say she lives in a three-storey apartment complex on Garden City Road, said she’s now dumping her food scraps into the regular garbage.
“(Harvest Power) are not willing to put in the technology (to reduce the smell) because of the money, so I’m not going to bother at my end,” she added.
“They rushed this facility out there without really thinking of the ramifications. And I’ve given up complaining to the City of Richmond about it as well.
“It’s now impacting my life too much and I’m looking at leaving Richmond.”
People in Richmond have been complaining about the smell from Harvest Power for several years.
She said there “is no town to my knowledge where it stinks like here. If a resident lives in an air-conditioned highrise, or has lost their sense of smell through ageing, smoking etc., the stink is not noticed.
“But there are many more people who live in non-air conditioned, single-family dwellings and multi-family residences with normal, functioning olfactory abilities and who endure this stink. I am not the only one who no longer trusts that this type of waste is managed to standards. Ergo, they also no longer fill the green bins.”
In March, the City of Richmond, in response to repeated complaints from residents, served Harvest Power with a second notice of default and started diverting its multi-family home organic waste to a facility in Delta.
A legal battle still persists between resident-founded Facebook group Stop the Stink and Metro Vancouver (MV). The group has applied to the Environmental Appeal Board to challenge the most recent air quality permit given by MV to Harvest Power.
Although 90 per cent of multi-family units in Metro Vancouver now have a collection system in place to separate food scraps, new numbers from MV show many of their residents aren’t using them.
