Bin there, dumped that ... for a cause
ZERO WASTE: Project teams up with PNE to promote recycling, de-stigmatize binning
Michael Leland is enjoying a regular paycheque for the first time in 14 years — even if it is a temporary gig.
He’s what some call a dumpster diver, although the preferred term in his community is binner.
And he’s working at the PNE during the fair, even though he normally doesn’t like crowds, as a “zero-waste ambassador” in co-ordination with The Binners’ Project, an advocacy and support organization for the people who probably have the most expertise on what we throw away.
“For me to come here with all these people, it’s a stretch,” Leland said. “But this is fantastic, to have guaranteed daily income after years of not.
“To think I’d ever be here, working at the PNE, is just beyond my realm of conception. We’re helping people in Vancouver meet zero-waste goals and it’s an opportunity to educate the public about who is in your alley. People are beginning to think maybe we’re not the evil guy in the alley who’s going to kill you.
From age 18 to 43, Leland was a commercial fisherman but two heart attacks and three strokes made regular work impossible for Leland, 57.
He wound up living rough in the Downtown Eastside before meeting Binners’ Project founder Ken Lyotier at the initial Coffee Cup Revolution in 2014 (300 binners dropped off 45,000 discarded coffee cups in one hour, getting five cents a cup).
The Binners’ Project is aimed at transitioning binners towards employment through structure, teamwork and self-esteem with meetings and workshops. It has a slogan: Uncommon goals for the common good.
“Our goals are to de-stigmatize binning and create new income opportunities for binners,” said Gabby Korcheva, programs manager with The Binners’ Project.
At the PNE, she said, “instead of people meeting binners in the shadows and alleyways, people are meeting binners doing their jobs.”
“That’s what is important.”