Additional items accepted for recycling and depot updates

The list of items you can recycle in your blue box and yellow bag is growing!

On January 1, Recycle BC officially began accepting materials from two new item categories for recycling. Single-use and packaging-like products can now be recycled with your containers or paper products, depending on the material they are made of.

Notable examples of new items accepted include:

• Aluminum foil, pie plates, and baking dishes (clean)
• Plastic food storage containers
• Plastic straws, stir sticks, and utensils
• Plastic disposable hangers
• Plastic tape dispensers
• Cardboard moving boxes
• Paper gift bags or boxes
• Paper party décor

See the full list with pictures on Recycle BC’s website.

Wait, but I already recycle these items, why are they considered new?

Though many of us may have already been putting these items in our recycling, prior to January 1 they were technically not accepted by Recycle BC. Why? They were considered “products” and not “packaging”.

The Township is a member of Recycle BC, a provincial not-for-profit responsible for residential packaging and paper product recycling in British Columbia. The Recycle BC program is funded by packaging producers who are responsible for ensuring their packaging is recycled at the end of its life. As a result, only packaging was accepted in the program. For example, the plastic cup your iced coffee came in was accepted as it was packaging for the coffee, but the stack of red plastic cups you bought for a house party would not be as they were a “product” that you purchased.

Recent changes to the BC Recycling Regulation now requires producers of packaging-like products to contribute to the Recycle BC program, resulting in their new acceptance for recycling. The change will help reduce confusion on what is or isn’t accepted for recycling.

New flexible plastics collection category at local depots

Have you been separating your plastic bags/overwrap from your other flexible plastic packaging? Good news! As of January 1 these two previous categories are now combined into a single “Flexible Plastics” collection category at local depots.

After several years of research on how to best recycle the previous “Other Flexible Plastic Packaging” category, Recycle BC has announced they have successfully produced a recycled plastic pellet by blending higher and lower quality plastics. As a result, all flexible plastics including plastic bags, overwrap, chip bags, wrappers, and more, are accepted as a single item category.

See examples of items accepted in the Flexible Plastics category and learn more about their recycling on Recycle BC’s website.

Township recycling guides and communications will be updated over the coming weeks to reflect these program changes.