Vancouver Firefighter Charities runs a clothing bank program with blue bins all over the city for people to drop off "any clean and dry textiles."
Ninety-seven per cent of the textiles donated are recycled by Trans-Continental Textile Recycling based in Surrey and repurposed into a wide array of products such as clothing, stuffing used for upholstery products, dog toys, and cleaning rags for home projects.
A portion of the revenue generated by the recycling is then re-donated to Firefighter Charities to fund programs such as Snacks for Kids, Toys for Kids, and Lifelines for Seniors.
However, the highest-yielding donation site, the No. 6 Firehall on Nelson St., no longer has bins out front. Instead, the three massive blue bins with their monster mouths (they were painted to look like actual mouths) have been replaced with signage explaining that multiple instances of vandalism and theft led to their removal.
Previous donation bins allowed people to crawl into the opening to take the textiles within, so three years ago in August 2020, the VFRS replaced the bins with ones that made crawling inside physically impossible.
"So what's happening is, rather than being able to crawl in, people were using cutting tools to break into the clothing banks," explains Capt. James Docherty, Executive Director of Vancouver Firefighter Charities.
"We would have to repair those bins frequently and it was costing us a lot of money," he tells V.I.A. over the phone. "We're looking at bringing in a different style with similar safety mechanisms but just with harder steel, so that people can't penetrate."
Some locals have taken issue with the removal of the bins and one of the interim signs has been vandalized with the question: "How is a free donation a theft?"
Docherty says he's sad that members of the community feel they need to steal clothing from the charity bin but says the damage is causing multiple issues.
"The big picture is that the clothing bank funds upstream community programs," which already have very narrow margins he says.
In addition to forcing the program to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, the noise associated with the vandalism (that typically occurs late at night) has prompted noise complaints.
"It's hard enough living next to a busy firehall," says Docherty. "We want to be good neighbours."
Over the last three years, Docherty says that VFRS has tried its best to curb the vandalism but the bins which are reportedly worth thousands of dollars are still being damaged on a regular basis which is why they were ultimately taken away.
In the last three years the clothing bins have recycled two million pounds worth of textiles and the Nelson St. firehall location was responsible for approximately 15,000 pounds per month.
The hope is that the new and improved vandal-proof bins will be in place by the fall.
