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A man tries to retrieve items from a clothing donation bin in Vancouver, on Dec. 12, 2018.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press

Diabetes Canada, the country’s largest owner of used-clothing donation bins, has a team of executives going to city councils asking them not to ban the receptacles in spite of the recent deaths of two homeless people associated with them.

The executives – who were at Toronto council Monday and at Vancouver and North Vancouver city halls in B.C.’s Lower Mainland Tuesday – argue the deaths should not lead to a hasty reaction to simply get rid of the bins.

Four Vancouver-area municipalities have banned them in recent weeks, while Vancouver and Toronto councils are also looking at changes.

But the Diabetes Canada executives say councils should demand design improvements like the ones it will have completed on its 4,300 bins throughout the country by the end of the week. The people who have died in bins did so because they got caught in the containers' mailbox-like metal door, meant to discourage people from reaching in and taking clothing out.

Scott Ebenhardt, the national director of business development for the National Diabetes Trust, warns that a ban will lead to tonnes of clothing being diverted to landfill and will have serious financial impacts for charities that operate bins.

Although a B.C. polling firm released results this week saying that 73 per cent of 800 British Columbians surveyed responded that they were in favour of getting rid of donation bins, Mr. Ebenhardt said history shows people want convenience. If bins are eliminated and people have to drive to specific buildings or to a city-operated recycling depot, they will throw more of their clothing in the regular garbage, he said.

As well, he said, Diabetes Canada gets 25 per cent of its revenue from the bins. The charity has three registered entities with Revenue Canada. The largest, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, had revenue of $21-million in 2017.

“Completely nullifying the program isn’t really the solution,” said Jeff Long, a national account manager with the charity, who spent Tuesday waiting to speak to council.

He said the Diabetes Canada bins alone result in 100 million pounds of clothing per year being diverted from landfills.

The push to ban the bins has become a hot topic the past month, after Vancouver saw its fifth bin death in four years. A homeless person in West Vancouver died on New Year’s Eve, while a Toronto woman died in one last week.

There have been eight deaths reported in Toronto, Cambridge, Ont., Calgary, and Vancouver altogether in the same four years.

The two recent incidents have sparked a backlash that earlier deaths didn’t, with many cities now calling for a ban. In B.C., four have so far, including West Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond and Delta, while Vancouver and Toronto councils are asking staff to do some research on solutions and make recommendations. Vancouver had already removed about 90 per cent of the bins on its land.

The bins have also generated controversy because they often become dumping grounds for all kinds of garbage that then sits for days or weeks.

Regulating the bins has become problematic because some are operated by charities, while others are put in by for-profit organizations. Some are on public land and are more easily regulated, but many others are on private property.

In Vancouver, Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung has asked for staff to look at a wide range of solutions, including having clothing bins placed in strata buildings, having a centralized drop-off for clothing, and encouraging new safer designs.

In the meantime, her motion suggests that staff should remove all remaining bins on city property and that the owners of bins on private land should be asked to remove or seal them until they are made safe.

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