Vancouver, September 1, 2014—Starting today, University Endowment Lands residents will receive curbside recycling collection of packaging and printed paper, many for the first time. The program, managed by Multi-Material BC (MMBC) on behalf of businesses that supply packaging and printed paper to residents, will collect those materials for recycling from approximately 450 residences in University Endowment Lands Areas A, B, C.
MMBC is a BC-based non-profit organization that officially assumed responsibility for financing and delivering recycling services for packaging and printed paper across the province in May 2014. MMBC represents nearly 1,000 companies that have stepped-up to meet the province’s Recycling Regulation.
Recycling collection is every Monday. Residents can set newsprint, paper, cardboard, plastic containers, metal containers, aerosol containers, milk cartons, and foil and plastic take-out containers out for curbside collection.
In August, households receiving the curbside recycling collection service received three new recycling boxes—a smaller blue one for newsprint, cardboard, and household papers; a larger blue one for metal containers, plastic containers, and paper packaging that held liquid when sold; and a green one for glass containers—and a recycling guide that outlines how to sort materials. Plastic bags and plastic foam packaging, and all materials that can be set out at the curb can be dropped off at any of five depots in the Vancouver area that accept MMBC materials.
Additional details about the curbside recycling program, including the full list of materials that are accepted, are available on MMBC’s website atwww.RecyclingInBC.ca. University Endowment Lands residents can also download a smartphone app for personal recycling collection reminders by searching Multi-Material BC in smartphone app stores or visiting www.RecyclingInBC.ca/uel.
MMBC is among more than 20 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs introduced in British Columbia over the past two decades, which has seen industry assume responsibility for end-of-life management of items such as beverage containers, electronics, paint, used oil, tires and batteries. The concept behind EPR is to make businesses responsible for collecting and recycling the products they supply into the BC marketplace.
About MMBC
In May 2011, BC’s Recycling Regulation was updated to include packaging and printed paper. The regulation shifts the responsibility for managing the residential recycling of packaging and printed paper from regional and municipal governments and their taxpayers to business.
Multi-Material BC (MMBC) is a non-profit industry-led and financed organization that assumed responsibility for managing residential packaging and printed paper recycling on behalf of industry in May 2014.
More information, including lists of MMBC collectors and members, is available at www.multimaterialbc.ca
Media Contact:
Sarah Stephen, 778-588-9505, sstephen@multimaterialbc.ca