Smart solutions for better city, better life (3)

No 3: Garbage reduction

Vancouver, a city in Canada, launched the Greenest City Initiative in 2009 with the aim of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020. Garbage sorting is part of the program.

"The holes we dig for burying garbage are getting full, so a big debate in Vancouver now is whether to burn or continue to bury garbage. We take a very innovative approach that is to encourage citizens to make zero waste, which means you cannot waste any more," says Kerry Jang, deputy mayor of Vancouver.

Elaborating on the initiative, Jang says the government encourages residents to separate garbage into three types namely food, plastics and paper.

In his city, waste paper and plastics are recycled and food waste is used as fertilizer.

"Residents are against garbage burning because it will pollute the air so we must burn very little and we are adopting technologies to efficiently reduce toxins during the burning process," he says. "But our ultimate goal is garbage reduction."