Back-to-school often comes with plenty of packaging.
The good news? Many of those packaging items can be recycled through Recycle BC.
School Supplies
- Mixed-material packaging often found with items such as scissors, markers, pens, and sticky notes can be recycled. Place the rigid plastic portion in your Containers recycling and the paper backing in your Paper recycling.
- Plastic overwrap from lined paper and notebooks is accepted as Flexible Plastics.
Lunch Food
Sandwich Spreads (Containers & Glass)
- When rinsing out jars from peanut butter, jam and other spreads, remember to separate the lids and recycle them with your other Containers recycling.
- Remember to separate glass jars from other containers. Glass packaging can break during collection and processing, contaminating other recyclable materials. To help ensure all Recycle BC materials can be effectively recycled, glass in BC is either collected at depots or separated from other materials and collected at the curb.
- Tasty Tip! Don’t throw away those empty peanut butter jars. If you’re not ready to wash out the residue, fill the jar with oats and milk, then shake it up for an overnight oats breakfast that helps reduce waste. After a good soak, the jar becomes much easier to rinse clean. The cleaner the material, the more effectively it can be recycled. Rinsed is always best and helps immensely at material recovery facilities, but recycled is still better than landfilled.
Deli Foods (Flexible Plastic)
- Plastic packaging from meats, cheeses, fresh pasta, and similar products is accepted as Flexible Plastics. These materials can be recycled through depot drop-off or in your pink bin or box if that service is available in your community.
- Materials not accepted as Flexible Plastics include plastic-lined paper, paper-lined plastic, six-pack beverage rings, packaging labelled biodegradable, compostable, or oxo-degradable, and vinyl packaging (typically thicker, more durable, and less crinkly).
Shipping Materials
- Shopping online? Plastic bubble mailers, plastic shipping bags, bubble wrap, and protective air packets are accepted as Flexible Plastics, provided they do not contain paper layers that cannot be fully separated from the plastic and do not have significant non-removable residue. Learn more about recyclable shipping materials at RecycleBC.ca/Online-Packaging.
Across BC, many families are getting ready for a new school year, packing lunches, labelling supplies, and settling back into routines.
We also recognize that for some communities, this school year is beginning differently as families continue to recover from this summer’s wildfire impacts.
Wherever you’re starting the school year, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and supported.