Multi-Material BC Assumes Responsibility for Household Recycling in City of Langley - Recycle BC

Multi-Material BC Assumes Responsibility for Household Recycling in City of Langley

Vancouver, January 2, 2015—Starting today, curbside and multi-family recycling collection in City of Langley will be managed directly by Multi-Material BC (MMBC) on behalf of businesses that supply packaging and printed paper to residents. MMBC, through its collector Emterra Environmental, will collect those materials for recycling from single-family and multi-family households in the City of Langley.

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 more than 1,000 companies that have stepped-up to meet the province’s Recycling Regulation, which shifts the responsibility for collecting and recycling materials from municipal taxpayers to the producers who created them.

Curbside recycling collection day may change for some households to coincide with changes to garbage and Green Can collection planned by the City of Langley. Recycling will be collected weekly, on the same day as weekly Green Can and alternate-week garbage collection. City of Langley households with curbside recycling will also sort recycling into three recycling boxes: a green one for glass containers, a blue one for newsprint and mixed paper, and a second blue one for metal, plastic, and paper containers. Residents, strata councils, and multi-family building owners with customer service questions can contact 604-599-8651.

City of Langley residents will be able to recycle the same materials in curbside and multi-family collection as before: newsprint, paper, cardboard, plastic containers, metal containers, aerosol cans, milk cartons, foil or plastic take-out containers. Non-deposit glass bottles and jars will be collected from green recycling boxes at curbside and from separate glass-only recycling containers in multi-family buildings that select glass collection. Glass bottles and jars, plastic bags, and plastic foam packaging, as well as all of the materials accepted in curbside and multi-family collection, can be dropped off at any of the three depots in Langley that have been accepting all MMBC materials since May 19.

Additional details about the recycling program, including the full list of materials that will be accepted, are available on MMBC’s website at www.RecyclingInBC.ca. City of Langley 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/CityOfLangley.

MMBC is among more than 20 extended producer responsibility 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 extended producer responsibility 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 is available at www.multimaterialbc.ca

Media Contact:
Sarah Stephen, 778-588-9505, sstephen@multimaterialbc.ca