Townhouse residents in Richmond could soon get their long-awaited food scraps recycling program - but they're going to have to pay for it.
People living in multi-family townhouse complexes have long wondered why they were not part of the city's "green can" program, which collects food scraps separately from other household waste.
Now, under a plan to expand and revamp the recycling initiative, the city will extend the service to all multi-family complexes that already have the blue bin recycling service.
However, each household is going to have to cough up an extra $49 a year to cover the costs of the new service.
New wheeled containers and kitchen containers for the food scraps are also expected to be phased in, including for single-family homeowners, who will also have to pay a little more for the privilege - $15.50 a year on top of their $68.50 organics collection fee.
"Expansion of food scraps and organics recycling to residents in multi-family residences is a priority in light of pending disposal bans for this material in 2015," said Suzanne Bycraft, the city's manager of fleet and environmental programs.
Townhouse food scraps, according to the city, account for 22 per cent of its household waste, material that can easily be recycled into organic compost or to create energy.
The move from the city comes as Metro Vancouver heads towards its expected ban on all food waste in the garbage system by 2015. If the expanded service goes ahead as expected, single-family homeowners can to choose between four sizes of carts: 80 litres up to 360 litres.
