If you sometimes find yourself standing over your curbside recycling bin wondering what you can throw into it, Regional District Waste Reduction Ambassadors can help.
Through the Cart Checking Program, they will be reaching out to residents across the Central Okanagan this spring and summer.
“We’re focusing our education and outreach efforts this year with a ‘Know Before You Throw’ motto,” explains Cynthia Coates, solid waste services supervisor.
She adds that most residents have the best intentions and are doing a good job with their recycling.
“That said, recycling audits regularly show there are still a substantial number of unacceptable items going into our recycling stream. If we don’t significantly reduce and eliminate these unacceptable products from our recycling loads, we face financial penalties from Recycle BC.”
Waste Reduction Ambassadors will look at the contents of recycling carts, and if they find items that don’t belong, they’ll leave an information card and a yellow reference sticker on carts to highlight what goes in, and what stays out.
If there is significant contamination, carts won’t be picked up until the unaccepted material is removed.
Repeated contamination can result in fines of up to $150 per offence.
Here is a list of items that don’t belong in recycling carts:
- Garbage, including garden hoses, landscape edging tarps, wood, broken ceramics;
- Non-packaging plastics such as toys, Tupperware-type containers, laundry baskets;
- Items recyclable at depots and other drop-off locations (but not in the cart);
- Plastic bags, including bagged recyclables;
- Styrofoam;
- Glass;
- Soft plastics such as cling wrap, bubble wrap, chip and snack bags, zipper bags;
- Electronics and small appliances;
- Textiles such as clothes, fabric and pillows;
- Soft cover novels and hardcover books and textbooks;
- Hazardous waste and hazards such as batteries, syringes, propane tanks, oil jugs.
More information about what to recycle in curbside carts, or at a depot, is available on the Regional District Central Okanagan website.
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