We are sad to share that our dear friend and colleague, Michael Leland, passed away on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026, at the age of 67. 

​Michael was the first binner to join the Project back in 2015 and was affectionately known as ‘binner number 1.’ Michael was an invaluable member of our team and community, quickly becoming one of the first binner-staff where he held his long-standing position as chair of our weekly Binners’ Meetings. He was a leader, a storyteller, and above all – a fighter. 

2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup

​Many of you will recognize him as our ‘poster boy’: always willing to take a photo, appear on video, speak at city council, or be ready in his binner-greens for a last-minute media appearance.

​In his early life, Michael was a commercial fisherman until health issues prevented him from keeping his job. He later became homeless, living in the lane behind the Keg on Thurlow Street. As Michael would often tell the story: after roughly six months in that spot, he saw a man putting about 18 dozen beer cans into the lane’s blue bin. He asked if he could take them, to which the man replied, “help yourself!” Michael earned about $20 that day, and in his words, ‘I haven’t looked back since.’

Michael was a regular binner at the Vancouver Yacht Club, going there 2-3 times per week to sort through the waste coming off the boats (Mondays, as you can imagine, were his favourite). After biking to the depot with his modified baby-carrier trailer full of bottles strapped precariously down behind him, he’d often walk away with about $80–$100+ in bottles in one day. More notably for Michael, though, was the food from the boats that found its way into the trash (much of it still frozen and unopened!), which kept Michael’s fridge full for most of the summer.

Michael and his baby-carrier trailer

​In addition to being a Coordinator on our staff team between 2016–2018, and co-chairing our weekly Binners’ Meetings, Michael was also a long-standing board member of Vancouver Urban Core Community Workers Association until its closure last year. 

Michael chairing the 2017 Binners’ Meeting at SFU Woodwards

​Michael’s health problems continued over the past couple of years, forcing him to slow down. Eventually, he had to leave his work at the Yacht Club, and limit his role at Binners’ Project to co-chairing the Binners’ Meeting, working small events, and of course fulfilling his ‘poster boy’ duties.

As the first of our community to have the bravery and courage to believe in this work and in our ability to succeed, Michael will always remain the foundation for what Binners’ Project has become today: resilience personified in the commitment to keep showing back up, no matter what.

Rest well, dear friend.

Michael at the 2018 Universal Cart Initiative press conference

We will be gathering to celebrate Michael’s remarkable life and the lasting impact he made upon the community on Friday, March 27, at 10:30 AM at 312 Main. All who knew Michael are warmly invited to attend.

​P.S. We love this video of Michael and hope you will too.

​Dear Mayor Stewart and Council,

I’m writing today in regards to the fee placed on single-use cups on January 1, 2022. Binners’ Project strongly opposes the continuation of this fee as we have seen that it disproportionately impacts people in poverty.

Over the nearly eight years since the first Coffee Cup Revolution in 2014, Binners’ Project has positioned itself as experts in the use and recycling of coffee cups, advocating for innovative ways to include binners in reducing the amount of cups ending up in our landfills. As a result, we were disappointed in the announcement of the bylaw, and the lack of strategic inclusion of marginalized voices in its development.

As you can imagine, people in poverty experience significant barriers to participating in many types of environmental solutions given the often high cost to the individual. Additionally, poverty prohibits many from obtaining and maintaining reusable items like coffee mugs. As a result, the addition of surcharges to single-use items disproportionately impacts poor people by requiring them to pay into the system without any alternative. This means that they, almost singularly, ultimately become responsible for funding any type of mug-sharing system a business might incorporate, a system in which many will face barriers to participating.

We also know that Extended Producer Responsibility best practices do not put the onus onto the consumer to mitigate the issues related to waste. These practices acknowledge the financial responsibility ought to be on the producers of cups, many of which are large multinational corporations. In fact, research used by Staff in the development of this policy has shown that penalizing customers with fees is less effective on changing behaviour than rewarding customers with either a reduction in cost (if the customer comes with an alternative), or the option for a refund. 

While the report coming to you on Wednesday acknowledges additional work needs to take place over the next 18 months, any potential mitigating solutions to these equity issues will take too long to create and implement, while in the meantime people in poverty will continue to pay into a system that will otherwise never benefit them. This 18 month time period before a report-back from Staff will cause more harm to this already marginalized and vulnerable community. 

Additionally, what’s missing from this report are the thousands of voices of people in poverty who are often politically invisible. They are not the ones calling and emailing complaints in part because they have repeatedly been subject to disenfranchisement by inequitable policies. The absence of these voices in the development of this policy was a great oversight. The absence of them now in your email boxes is not a measure of their apathy – it’s a measure of their learned helplessness. 

There is no national precedent for a cup fee in reducing waste. When changes like this are proposed, evidence and community informed best practices need to be utilized to make sure that innovations we make as a city serve as an example for others around the world to replicate. The length of time spent on developing this policy was not enough to ensure that it was done well, with both an equity and environmental framework in mind. We urge Council to remove the fee on single-use cups while more innovative and equitable solutions are determined in the interim.  

Thank you for your attention to this matter – I will be speaking at the Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, and look forward to discussing this further then.

Sincerely,

Sean Miles
Director, Binners’ Project

​First off - thank you to everyone who has donated so far, we’ve already raised $1,745! Don’t miss out on helping us reach our $5,000 goal - donate here. 

Next up this week is Shirley, who has been a member since 2018 and is one of our Team Leads. Here’s a bit from my chat with her.

Q: What’s your favourite thing about working with Binners’ Project?

Reducing a lot of garbage into nothing. We get 10 bags of garbage and turn it into two bags, so it’s cool to see that we’re making a difference. One of our clients came out and saw we had so many bags going in and only came out with two and was so impressed. She goes: “It’s unreal, I never thought that much could be composted.” But there’s a lot in there that can be composted. 

Q: Last week you helped do an online workshop with some students. How did that go?

It was a lot of fun. We got to listen to the kids, and we got to tell our stories. Some of the kids appreciated it and they asked me what I was going to do after COVID was all over, and I said hopefully I can get back to my job at the Convention Centre. That was my favourite spot. We always had regular work there.

Q: What’s something else you’re excited about post-COVID?

Going out and walking around like normal again, and not having to wear a mask. I get freaked out when people don’t wear masks on the bus, and the busses are starting to get really full these days, so sometimes I get out and wait for another one. I’m excited to not have to worry about that anymore. 

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Thanks for following along, and I’m excited to share a few more stories with you next week. We only have 2 more weeks to reach our $5,000 goal – donate now.

Let me tell you a little about Francis. 

Even though this past year was tough, Francis continued to thrive in his role with Binners’ Project and he was officially promoted to Coordinator this year. 

We’re currently fundraising $5,000 to support the continued employment of binners like Francis – please donate now. 

I had a moment to chat with Francis about how this year has gone for him and here are some highlights: 

Q: What was the last year like for you?

Very very hard. It affected everything in my life because I don’t have a lot of family members here. There was no social interaction, nowhere to go. A lot of my friends can’t visit each other. I have friends in Surrey and in Coquitlam, but I have not seen them up to now. We will talk on the phone, but you can’t go and visit. And it’s really hard because instead of my family, these are the people I would meet every day. 

Q: How did Binners’ Project help you this year? 

Without Binners’ Project I don’t know what else I was going to do. Binners’ helped a lot because it made me come out of my shell. You’ve got some people to talk to, some people you have something in common with, who you can relate to. You can work with them, and get to know them and they become friends; they become like part of the family. 

Q: What’s something you’re looking forward to once the pandemic is over?

I’m excited for Binners’ Project to be open for business 100%, and people are working every day. Once things start opening up, people are going to start asking us to come sort their waste for them and we’ll get more work. We’ve been working with some of these companies and they’re responding very positively, so I’m looking forward to getting more work soon.

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I hope you’ll consider donating to support our employment programs that serve to provide people like Francis meaningful, low-barrier work opportunities. Donate today, and help us reach our $5,000 goal. ​

I have some news – after a wonderful experience directing Binners’ Project and its team, I have decided to move on and have accepted another position.

In the interim, while our Steering Committee embarks on a search for a new, permanent Director, long-time Binners’ Project staff, Brianne De Man will be stepping in as Interim Director.

Brianne has been with Binners’ Project for 4 years, joining the team in an operations position in early 2017. She’s been managing communications, fundraising, finance, and strategy for the past 2 years and holds a great amount of institutional knowledge and insight on how to continue putting binners first in our programs and advocacy efforts. I have confidence that the Project will be in excellent hands. 

We’ll share more information soon once the new posting is live - so stay tuned for that. 

It’s always a tough decision to leave colleagues and work that I hold so dear, and it’s been an incredibly humbling experience to continue working in the Downtown Eastside, a community I cherish. However, I have so much faith in the team of binners we have and the core staff who support them and am excited to see what the next chapter of Binners’ Project brings. I will continue to be a diehard supporter of this work, as I know you are as well.

All the best,

Landon

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​I thought I would touch base on how things are shaping up here at Binners’ Project.

We had another outdoor Binners’ Meeting on Tuesday and I got a chance to chat with the binners about how things are going for them. Overall people are doing OK so far, which is good to hear. They’re anxious about what might happen over the next few weeks, but everyone is healthy and they’re really grateful for the income replacement we’ve been giving them. 

Thank you so much to those of you who donated over the week. Brianne told me that 37 of you donated $1,905, which is amazing. If you haven’t donated yet, you can do that right here. 

This money is going towards our Binners’ Meetings stipends, which we’ve upped from $5 to $20 after our social enterprise programs were cancelled. Cancelled programs means lost revenue, which is why we’re looking for donations to help us cover these costs. What you’ve donated so far gives us about 2 weeks of ‘income replacement’ for about 50 binners.

Help us get to $5,000 so we can continue income replacement through to May. Pitch in now. 

We’ll be in touch as things continue.

Stay safe out there,

Davin
Community Specialist

PS: Donate now to help us continue giving binners income while they’re not able to work!