We want all residents to participate in their recycling program and put out container and paper recycling for collection. Every time we don’t recycle, we’re hurting our environment. We can all do our part and put recyclable containers and paper in the blue boxes. Other materials like plastic bags and overwrap, foam packaging and glass …
Education
We know holidays are great times for family and friends to gather and celebrate. We also know that holidays can bring excess packaging into our homes. What you might not know is that most of this seasonal packaging can be recycled either at home or at a Recycle BC depot. Our infographic below shows which …
Introduction: Recycle BC is responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling in BC. We ensure packaging and paper is collected from households, and recycling depots, processed and responsibly recycled. We service over 1.8 million households through curbside, multi-family and depot collection, including 98% of the population having access to depots and over 155 communities participating …
Do you often wonder why you can include plastic yogurt containers in your recycling bin, but not plastic toys? Or why you can include flyers and magazines, but not books? Recycle BC is responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling and collects material in accordance with Schedule 5 of the Province of BC’s Recycling Regulation. …
We recently received an email from Ms. Martin’s class who are learning to “reduce, reuse, recycle” and we thought this was a great opportunity to share some information about the pollution prevention hierarchy. The Recycle BC program adheres to the pollution prevention hierarchy — a series of steps to manage waste, in order of the …
A tidy garden or fresh coat of paint for your home can make a visual impact in your neighbourhood, but have you thought about your environmental impact? Residents in BC are some of the best recyclers in Canada, but it’s important to stay up-to-date and feel confident in your recycling know-how and Recycle BC is …
Summer is an interesting time in the recycling world. Collectors and processors see an increase in problematic seasonal materials that, in addition to contaminating recyclable materials, can pose serious problems including worker injury, explosions and fires. In this post, we look at one such hazardous item — compressed gas. Some examples of compressed gas include …
In BC, we are some of North America’s best recyclers, but we can do much better! We want you to rethink the way you recycle and ensure the correct items are being put in your home recycling bins so everything we collect can be recycled. Recycling tips There are a number of things we can …
Recently, the CBC posted an article titled, “10 kinds of packaging that are a pain in the blue box,” that identified certain materials that should not be included in recycling containers. They write, Certain kinds of packaging are just too hard for many recycling programs to handle. Some require consumers to take a few extra …
Paper bags lined with plastic are no longer accepted in the Recycle BC program due to recent changes and stricter guidelines in global recycling end-markets, Examples of paper bags lined with plastic include dog food bags and tortilla chip bags. With these changes in effect, it is more important than ever to keep recyclables sorted, …
British Columbians love their coffee, and today’s busy lifestyle means we’re often enjoying our java on the go. Unfortunately, improperly disposing of paper coffee cups creates a mountain of litter and garbage: • Thousands of coffee cups are tossed in garbage bins every week. • 25 per cent of coffee cup waste (using the City …
Vancouver is Awesome is on a quest to uncover some unusual and (hopefully) interesting facts about the City of Vancouver. Today’s post is about Boxing Day, and relevant to the entire province. How did it get its name? Is it a shopping holiday all over the world? How much shopping is actually done? Has online shopping taken …
You may have heard the term before, but what exactly is contamination in the context of residential recycling? Simply put, contamination is material that is not accepted for collection in Recycle BC’s curbside or multi-family packaging and paper collection program. Contamination, in this context can include one or more of the following examples: Material that …
Looking to recycle your holiday materials? Check our holiday recycling page to view a quick reference guide or use the search tool to search how to properly dispose of items.
Recycle BC, in partnership with the City of Vancouver, conducted a nine-month on-street recycling pilot project to encourage residents and visitors to recycle packaging and paper. The pilot project launched in August 2016 and ran until May 2017. The recycling stations are in 31 locations in Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood and Second Beach in Stanley Park. Read …