When you set out packaging and printed paper to be collected as part of the Multi-Material BC (MMBC) residential packaging and printed paper recycling program, we recycle as much of it as we can. In fact, in our first year of operations, over 93 percent of materials collected in our program were sent to material remanufacturers to be turned into new products and packaging. This exceeds our target of sending 85-90 percent to material remanufacturers.
The material that we didn’t send to material remanufacturers was sent for disposal, which is another way of saying we had to send it to a landfill. This is because the material was either not accepted in our program (for example, garbage or green waste), unsortable (for example, materials tied up in plastic bags—for safety reasons workers cannot open these), or otherwise did not meet the specifications of material remanufacturers.
Residents can help us increase how much of our collected material is recycled by following sorting instructions and only adding materials that are accepted in the program to their curbside, multi-family, or depot collection.