What Are the Regulations in Vancouver for Recycling and Waste Disposal for Businesses?

Compared to other cities, Vancouver, British Columbia, would probably be considered pretty tightly regulated for both waste disposal and recycling for businesses compared to other cities. However, remarkable waste management solutions and procedures contribute to preserving Vancouver and making it a very clean city.

Operational-impact materials and hazardous waste are banned in Vancouver. Some of these wastes that need to be disposed of by different businesses require special handling while other waste materials are designated for regional and local recycling depots.

The Environmental Management Act (EMA) bans the introduction of hazardous waste in Vancouver in a way that will create pollution, except in accordance with approval, permit, or regulation of practice provided under the regulation act.

The Hazardous Waste Regulation (HWR) gives the proper disposal and handling of waste products under the Environment Management Act (EMA). Hazardous wastes refers to all the goods that are not used for the original purpose and meet the criteria for Categories 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 9 for recycling.

Such materials include the following:

* PCB wastes

* Waste which contains dioxin

* Biomedical waste

* Waste oil

* Waste asbestos

* Waste pest product control containers

* Waste having pest control products

* Leachable toxic waste

* Waste that contains tetrachloroethylene

* Waste that contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon

Materials and products categorized as hazardous waste include the following:

* Stored, recycled, disposed of, treated, or abandoned

* The goods that are intended for recycling, disposal or treatment

* In transit or storage before recycling, disposal or treatment

Big and small business owners should read carefully all the regulations on hazardous waste and recycling for businesses and follow them strictly as penalties are stiff. Unfortunately, it's not possible to bypass these regulations, but most businesses are happy to follow them because of the benefits of being located in Vancouver.

All of these provincial and city laws and regulations are readily available online with a simple Google search. For space, we have omitted linking to a long list of regulations.

For almost 20 years, Always Clean Maintenance has been proudly providing maintenance services to both residential and commercial properties on the Lower Mainland from Chilliwack to Squamish. If you have any questions about this article or would like to talk to us about property maintenance, please give us a call at (604) 789-1256.