Too many contaminated items in recycling, enforcement to increase

Central Okanagan residents are being encouraged to make sure they are putting acceptable items in their recycling.

Not everyone has been doing that which has led to some costly penalties being imposed on some local governments by Recycle BC.

Recycling is contaminated when material that is not accepted for collection under Recycle BC guidelines ends up in the curbside recycling system. Waste audits conducted regularly by Recycle BC show contamination in the region’s curbside recycling carts average around 8 per cent, well above allowable levels of 3 per cent.

RDCO Manager of Engineering Services, Travis Kendel, says garbage doesn’t belong in recycling carts.

“When the Regional District finds unacceptable items, we provide education and if there is a lot, we’ll refuse to collect the cart. Despite our best-efforts, contamination still gets through, and there is a cost to that,” Kendel said.

In the last quarter of 2022, a total of $55,000 in penalties from Recycle BC where applied to the City of Kelowna and the City of West Kelowna.

Kendel said while most residents are doing their best to follow the recycling guidelines, there’s still unacceptable items being tossed in the carts, such as books, scrap metal, plastic toys, plastic bags, and glass.

“Last year, hundreds of carts were left at the curb, not picked up due to excessive contamination. Nearly ten thousand carts had contamination that required education material to be provided to the resident. This year we plan to advance our enforcement strategy. We’re going to leave more carts behind, pursue more fines for violators, and continue to put responsibility on the resident to keep garbage out of recycling,” Kendel commented.

The most common recycling contaminants are:

• Household garbage
• Scrap metal
• Durable plastics such as laundry baskets, toys, tarps, garden hoses
• Books
• Construction material
• Textiles such as clothes, shoes, bedding, pillows
• Hazardous waste such as electronics, propane tanks
• Depot only material such as plastic bags, Styrofoam, glass and other flexible plastic packaging

To find out more about what to recycle in your curbside cart or at a depot, visit rdco.com/recycle.