Vancouver Downtown Eastside Cleans up

United We Can Turns Trash into Money

"There are people who say the cockroach people. I guess that's us," says Ken Lyotier on a cigarette break outside United We Can, his ramshackle storefront recycling depot on East Hastings Street. "There are people who want to stereotype everybody."

Lyotier's quiet voice carries on over the din of heavy construction a block away on Cordova Street. He pauses and a cloud of smoke escapes his pale pink lips, drifts and blends in with his silvery hair. "The cockroach people," he continues, "are an army of "binners" scavenging all over Vancouver through other people's trash for recyclable glass and plastic bottles and metal cans. The binners then sell these to United We Can."

According to Lyotier, the silver-haired, chain-smoking former binner turned executive director and manager of the non-profit registered charity, once the bottles have been separated, counted and bagged, trucks will take them to an an actual recycling plant.

United We Can Cleaning up Downtown Vancouver

In 1990, United We Can advertised a one-day bottle pick-up depot, funded by a $1500 grant from a local minister. The effort failed due to all the payouts Lyotier made but it generated a buzz. "It brought together all these people who weren't really visible on the street. It was very interesting," says Lyotier. In the beginning "people laughed in my face, but Vancity took a risk on us." The credit union lent Lyotier $25,000 and in 1995 United We Can opened its doors.

Since it opened, United We Can has attracted 220 customers, businesses that leave bottles for Lyotier and other binners to collect and take back to the depot. Selling the recyclables, the organization generates enough revenue to cover its costs.

A visit to the storefront near Hastings and Abbbott in one of Downtown Eastside's roughest strips forces you to rub shoulders with a horde of binners standing outside, keeping an eye on their run-down shopping carts. Once inside, you are hit by a smell like day-old booze. The screech of glass bottles scratching against each other as they are sorted is sufficiently painful that any workers receiving and cashing out the items wear ear protection. Mountains of bagged plastic bottles line the east wall. The grimy glass front door is constantly opening and closing as people come in with bottles and leave with money in their pockets.

United We Can's main goal is to offer "employment opportunities," as Lyotier calls this brisk trade, to people dealing with mental health or addiction issues. "Employment varies depending on the time of year. At the moment, there are around 20 full-time workers and another 100 part-time or casual workers," explains Lyotier.

Binners, such as Derek Holt, claim to make at least $700 to $800 a month. And it's all tax-free. In the past he was able to make $400 to $550 from the Holiday Inn on West Broadway. Now, he makes around $375 because "the maids caught onto what kind of money can be made, and now keep half."

Holt explained that, like himself, most binners are territorial because some people have been caught stealing other people's bottles. Fortunately for him, staff at the hotel like him and keep dumpsters locked until he shows up.

A binner can't be afraid to be seen in a deep and intimate relationship with rejected trash. Holt used to be embarrassed, but has learned to deal with it as the public has become more supportive. Lyotier expresses the opinion that the public genuinely cares and wants to see an improvement in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Holt agrees, "Because if there is a mess, I clean it up."