United We Can Bottle Depot is a social enterprise created by street level recyclers in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The Urban Binning Unit, is a utility cart for binners intended to replace the shopping cart as the preferred means for collecting and transporting recyclable beverage containers.

United We Can received business coaching and a grant from the Social Enterprise Fund. These funds were used to manufacture the urban binning carts to pilot the program. The pilot project showed that the cart’s usefulness extended beyond container transportation to a community development tool. The binners became involved in a network of recyclers that helped build self-esteem, improve behaviour and upgrade interpersonal skills. A number of United We Can’s current small business customers agreed to use the cart pick-up service to test commercial applications and train the binners. Once a binner has been trained in commercial collection, a marketing campaign will be developed to expand container collection from small businesses in the downtown core. This new approach to binning requires different supporting services. As a result, United We Can hired a community development worker to devise a program for personal development, customer service training and marketing planning.

The Urban Binning Cart has generated modest advertising revenue and increased revenue received through bottle returns at United We Can. Although the volume of containers recycled through the cart program has not been quantified, it is anticipated that the larger-volume carts will provide an environmental benefit of increased container recycling activity. United We Can has distributed 10 urban binning carts to binners collecting in the Downtown Eastside.

http://www.unitedwecan.ca/