Port Coquitlam wants to make a buck or two from its new bear-resistant garbage and green waste bin locks.
This week, the city announced its would be distributing 8,000 of its staff-designed locks this spring to homeowners receiving city pick-up and live in areas where bruins are a common sight - that is, all northside residents as well as some southside neighbourhoods where there is high bear activity.
Other southside homeowners can request the locks for free and those who have already bought a Critter Guard lock can request a replacement at no cost, a city spokesperson said.
Mayor Greg Moore said the city has already been approached by municipalities and garbage companies wanting to purchase the PoCo product, which is certified by the BC Conservation Foundation.
Last year, the city applied for a patent and is still waiting for approval from the Canadian Commissioner of Patents. In the meantime, city staff will work on a business model to figure out how to market the made-in-PoCo lock.
"This is really cool," Moore said. "It was our staff who started talking about this and being creative."
In 2013, there were more than 1,160 bear sightings in PoCo. No such cart locks were available a decade ago when the city changed over to an internal solid-waste collection system. PoCo's automated garbage pick-up was the first municipal program in western Canada.
With the Critter Guard locks, PoCo homeowners have to manually remove the fastener before their trash or green waste bin is put out. On collection day, that's between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m.
On Monday, city council gave three readings to amend the solid waste bylaw to allow the municipality to compete with private garbage haulers to collect organics from institutional, commercial and industrial (ICI) buildings. The move comes as Metro Vancouver prepares to ban organics from trash, starting Jan. 1, 2015.
Any new ICI contracts would also generate a profit for the city, Moore said.
@jwarrenTC
