Residents of the Downtown Eastside will be hired to collect recycled cans and bottles during the Olympic Games.Residents of the Downtown Eastside will be hired to collect recycled cans and bottles during the Olympic Games. (CBC)

More than 70 residents of the Downtown Eastside will be busy during the Olympics, after city council approved a $50,000 grant to pay them to collect recyclables during the 2010 Winter Games.

The non-profit group United We Can will pay binners about $10 an hour to work four-hour shifts picking up cans and bottles from about 250 temporary recycling bins around downtown Vancouver.

Councillor Geoff Meggs said it's a chance to spread around the benefits of the Games, using a grant from the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy Reserve Fund.

"It just makes sense when we have all these additional visitors in town, and we have an extra requirement to keep the city looking good, that we try to bring them [the binners] in on it," said Meggs on Thursday.

Deposits from the recycled goods will be used to pay other workers at the non-profit United We Can recycling depot in East Vancouver. The group operates the facility to provide work for those who make a living collecting cans and bottles on city streets.