Editor's note: On Friday, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver also announced it is pulling its bins off the streets.

The non-profit organization that manages a West Vancouver clothing donation bin where a man died over the weekend announced late Thursday that it’s pulling all its bins from B.C. streets until they can be modified and made safe.

Inclusion BC will be relocating all 146 bins to a secure storage facility pending a review. Those bins are currently located in Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley, Sunshine Coast, the Interior and central and northern Vancouver Island.

“We will continue to work with our bin manufacturer, municipal authorities, design experts and community partners to formalize and promote the adoption of industry-wide safety standards to keep our communities safe,” it said in its release.

The bin in West Vancouver’s Ambleside Park where the 34-year-old man became stuck and died belonged to Community Living Society, which is a participating member of Inclusion BC’s clothes-drop program.

The news of bins being pulled province-wide comes a day after the District of West Vancouver decided it would be sealing all its clothing donation bins after the death, which was the second of 2018, and at least the fifth death in the region in the past few years.

In July 2018, a woman in her 30s died after she became trapped inside a donation bin on Vancouver’s West Side. On Thursday, the City of Vancouver explained in a statement that because it determined the “public safety risk (from bins) could not be adequately mitigated,” it’s been asking operators to remove bins from street right-of-ways since the death.

So far, more than 100 bins – accounting for 90 per cent– have been removed. Bins have also been taken out of some community centres and off school grounds. However, donation bins remain outside some Vancouver fire halls and on private property. The city said it plans to review those located on private property in early 2019.
 

Sense of urgency after latest death: UBC prof

Meanwhile, UBC Okanagan Engineering professor whose students had already been working on a bin redesign, said he now wants to retrofit existing bins so no one else gets hurt.

“Obviously nobody wants people to get…killed. At this time, we have to move forward; we have to put all our efforts together to solve this problem,” Ray Taheri told CTV News.

Taheri said he plans to form a task force, and gather all the existing designs in one place, so that his team can quickly find a way to modify them.

The challenge, Taheri said, is that there are at least four or five different designs – and bins will have to be retrofitted to either prevent someone from getting in altogether, or with an easy, clear way to get out.

Taheri and his team are already working with a number of charities that include Inclusion BC.

“Inclusion BC is very saddened to learn of the death of an individual in one of its clothing donation bins,” said executive director Karla Verschoor in an email. “Our deepest condolences go out to those affected by this tragic incident.”

The organization said it receives the great majority of its donations through the community bins, rather than at drop-off locations, and called the donations a “significant source of funding.”
 

Where can donations be made? 

The following charities will pick-up household items and clothing from your home:

  • Big Brothers Big Sisters: Visit its website or call 604-526-2774
  • Diabetes Canada: Go to its website or call 1-800-505-5525
  • Helping Families in Need Society: Visit its website for a list of accepted donations or call 604-294-3087
  • Habitat for Humanity: Go to its site for a list of items that can be donated

With files from CTV Vancouver’s David Molko