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Ridge Meadows Recycling Society depot has sold hundreds of containers that are helping conserve the environment.
In the last five years, the depot on 236th Street has sold almost 1,000 containers that help conserve and save the environment.
The latest on offer are bear-resistant bins that keep the hungry bruins from growing accustomed to dining in the suburbs.
Once bears associate food with people, they can become more dangerous and can be shot.
The recycling depot is offering 400 bear-resistant containers at the discount price of $100. Usually the containers, which have a locking lid, cost $200, but the City of Maple Ridge is subsidizing a limited number of them in order to encourage people to buy them.
Dan Mikolay, wildlife coordinator for Maple Ridge, said earlier that about a dozen animal-proof containers have been sold so far.
The containers are part of a Maple Ridge effort at becoming a Bear Smart Community.
The city will be applying for the designation at the end of the year with the Ministry of Environment.
“The bins are available on a first-come, first-served basis,” said Leanne Koehn.
Also available for $65 are composters that will chew up yard and kitchen waste and turn it into usable material for the garden.
For the more dedicated, the solar cone food digester, priced at $125, will use the power of the sun to decompose kitchen waste.
Saving water is possible by buying a rain barrel for $70. Hooking that up to an eavestrough can make a difference when it comes to watering lawns and gardens during prolonged droughts.
In the last five years, the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society has sold: 668 solar cones; 180 compositors (the overall grand total of composters sold is 3,819); 108 rain barrels.