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DISTRICT COUNCIL

“HE SHOULD be ap-
plauded for his. efforts,’’
wrote North Vancouver
District homeowner Bert
Cowan.

By Martin Millercnip
Contributing Writer

And at a recent North Van-
couver District Council meeting,
he was.

Michael Dupasquier collects
bottles and cans for the deposit
money.

But because his source is often
the contents of blue boxes set out
for recycling he is one of the
“scavengers’’ or ‘‘undesirable
‘types’? targeted by a proposed
amendment to the district's Waste
” Removal Bylaw.

if the bylaw amendment is ap-
proved, any unauthorized collec-
tion from a blue box could net
_Dupasquier a $50, ticket from
district bylaw enforcement of-
ficers,

Dupasquier said the amendment
is short-sighted and does nothing

46 To ticket him
$50 for that effort

is just obscene. 99

~Coun. Janice Harris

~to address the real problems of
recycling. oe

He presented his story to coun-
cil at its Feb. 22 meeting.

“TY was really scared when I
went up there. 1 don’t like speak-
ing in. front of people I don’t
know,’? Dupasquier later told the
News in an interview.

But scared or not he spoke ef-
fectively of bottles being broken
and sometimes left on the ground,
or at best being stockpiled without
a current market by International
Paper Industries Ltd. (IPI).

He argued that recycling for re-
fund and reuse as he does is of
greater benefit than treating beer
bottles ‘as colored glass.

. “If'we recycled these mountains

of glass properly we wouldn’t be
having stories of (ex-Surrey
mayor) Ed McKitka having 65
loads of glass being dumped on
his property,’’ said Dupasquier to
applause from the public gallery.

Three days a week Dupasquier
Tanges between the Second Nar-
rows Bridge and Capilano Mall
and from the North Shore water-
front to the top of Braemar Road
towing a homemade cart behind
him.

Often getting up at 5 a.m and
not finishing until 2 p.m., he
walks through a pair of sneakers a
month.

“My doctor told me I kad to
stay in shape,’’ he said with a
laugh.

Dupasquier was born with
polio. It affects his right leg, spine
and motor responses.

it has not affected his deter-
mination and drive.

“These guys (council) have got
to take notice of the public and
their wishes for recycling, and if
they’re not going to listen I’m go-
ing to campaign for change,’’
Dupasquier says.

D dalint

gabe RARE

eee ee

is,

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‘

THREE DAYS a week Michael Dupasquier ranges between the Second Narrows Bridge and Capilano
Mall and from the North Shore waterfront to the top of Braemar Road towing a homemade cart
behind him. Often getting up at 5 a.m and not finishing untif 2 p.m., he walks through a pair of

sneakers a month.

He has begun to collect letters
from the ‘‘regulars’’ on his routes
and if the tone of the sample he
showed the News is typical, coun-
cil might be advised to listen.

Cowan describes the proposed
bylaw amendment as ‘' petty and
mean~spirited,"”’ while for Colin
Parkinson it is “the fast nail in
your (council’s) collective cof-
fins.”

The News Inquiring Reporter
garnered 100% support for Blue
Box scavengers in his Feb. 28
street survey.

In the wider News You Said It
telephone survey published on
Feb. 28. 45.2% of respondents
who had an opinion on the issue
said scavenging from blue boxes
should not be illegal.

Bui Dupasquier acknowledges

«that there are ‘tup to 100’ sca-

vengers on the North Shore, some
of whom are thieves.

He has found people in his own
yard at night after his own bot-
es.

“T can see the concerns of the
district trying to control scaven-
gers with regard to trespass and
worries of abduction,’’ Dupas-
quier said.

He admitted that he has been
“stopped and checked out’? by
Block Watch citizens on more
than one occasion,

‘T don’t mind that. In fact, 1
want that. I want people to feel
secure that I am not a threat to
them and their children.’’

Dupasquier said he never takes
recyclables from private property
without first seeking. permission
and suggests the district license
and vet recyclers like him for a
fee,

But he will have a tough fight
on his hands.

Coun. Janice Harris recorded
the only vote against the district’s
proposed bylaw amendment.

She told the News, ‘I’m very
discouraged by the closed-minded
approach of council.

“What we get with Michael is
unbroken bottles that are there to
be reused. To ticket him $50 for
that effort is just obscene.’’

But Coun. Paul Turner said the
district has already licensed a
recycler: IPL.

“We have a contract, and to
allow others to take from the blue
boxes I don’t think would be war-
ranted,’’ said Turner.

“The problem is that not
everybody is Michael, and I don’:
think our citizens will want us to
allow scavengers roaming through
their garbage.”’

But Coun. Jim Cuthbert admits
the whole issue has been bothering
im.

“I certainly had a_ sensitive
chord struck by what he said. By
taking a second Jook at the issue
we may end up with a more effi-
cient recycling system,’’ Cuthbert
told the News.

Coun. Ernie Crist labels
Blue Box system ‘‘flawed.’’

“Tt is haphazard. [t is expen-
sive. But at the time it was the
best that we could do,”’ said Crist.

Crist said that nothing will
change until the federal govern-
ment legislates companies into us-
ing a percentage of recycled mate-
rial in all manufacturing.

Crist is also philosophically op-
posed to scavenging for a living.

“You can’t expect me to sup-
port licensed stealing. We owe
these people a better living than
that.”

the

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.. 44
.55

BLUE BOX BLUES

THE NORTH Shore News
asked Emmie Leung, Chief
Executive Officer and
founder of International
Paper Industries Ltd. (IPI,
for her response to scaveng-
ing from blue boxes and the
charges that IPI does not
reuse beer or pop bottles.

Leung admitted that glass pop
bottles are not returned to Gray
Beverage Inc. for reuse, but she
said that IPI received very few
pop bottles. :

She said that beer bottles were
sorted for return but again
pointed out that ‘95 tu 97%"’ of
beer bottles are returned to bottle
depots by homeowners.

Leung said that once people are
allowed to start taking items from
the blue. boxes the whole recycling
system could collapse.

“What if newspaper becomes
valuable tomorrow?" Leung ask-
ed.

“The system allows the home-
owner to return recyclables for re-
fund or make other arrangements,
but once they put it in the blue
box it’s for that program,’’

She said she was also concerned
with liability claims in the event
that someone was injured scaveng-
ing for material in 4 blue box.

But Leung said she was not
mad at scavenger Michael Dupas-
quier, '

“If he comes to my house, he
can have my bottles. My profit is
protected. Ail ihe revenue from
the recycling program goes back
to the taxpayer.”

The three North Shore
municipalities have a contract with
IP] that has two more years to
run.

The contract pays IP] an agreed

“cost for collecting and sorting the

Blue Box waste-stream less an
average monthly amount based on
revenue from recyclables.

Actual sales versus projected
sales are adjusted quarterly.
Leung: said that approximately
$80,000 goes back to the taxpayer
every three months.

“Good luck to
man,’’ she concluded. ‘‘He has
other means at his disposal
without changing the system.’’

this young

In the meantime, Dupasquier
has asked council members to ac-
coripany him on one of his col-
lection routes so they can re-
examine waste-stream manage-
ment. ;

He said-that if he had the space
he would expand his recycling ac-
tivities to include more of the
waste he sces almost daily.

“People throw away a lot of
stuff that they are finished with
but in other people’s hands is still
usable,’’ he said.

Dupasquier is interested in the
province’s idea of ‘‘deposit
depots’ replacing the “return to
retailer’? system.

Dupasquier would like to hear
from anyone with interests or
concerns about recycling on the’
North Shore at 988-0677.

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