Place only recyclable items — not garbage or unrecyclable materials — in your blue bins.
That’s the message the Regional District of the Central Okanagan (RDCO) issued on Friday after announcing Kelowna and West Kelowna had been fined $55,000 recently for having too much contaminated recycling.
“Costly financial penalties are being imposed on some Central Okanagan local governments by Recycle BC,” said the RDCO. “And we’ll see more unless some residents improve their curbside recycling habits.”
The regional district says recycling can become contaminated when residents try to recycle material that isn’t deemed recyclable.
“Waste audits conducted regularly by Recycle BC show contamination in the region’s curbside recycling carts average around eight per cent, well above allowable levels of three per cent,” said the RDCO.
According to the regional district, 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
“Garbage doesn’t belong in your recycling cart,” said Travis Kendel, the regional district’s manager of engineering services.
“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.”
The RDCO said in the last quarter of 2022, Kelowna and West Kelowna were fined a total of $55,000 by Recycle BC.
“While it’s encouraging to see most residents on the curbside recycling program doing their best to follow the recycling guidelines, there are still unacceptable items being tossed in the carts, items such as books, scrap metal, plastic toys, plastic bags and glass,” said Kendel.
He added that hundreds of carts were left at the curb last year, and weren’t picked up due to excessive contamination.
“Nearly 10,000 carts had contamination that required education material to be provided to the resident,” said Kendel. “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 the responsibility on the resident to keep garbage out of recycling.”
More information about recycling is available on the RDCO’s website.
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