Okanagan program sifts through recycling to educate homeowners

Recycling experts in the Okanagan will spend the summer examining the contents of 8,000 blue bins and critiquing homeowners on their recycling skills.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan has employed two recycling ambassadors to carry out the program in hopes that it will decrease recycling contamination, which in that region, is about eight per cent.

That's the amount of materials in recycling that have to be put in the landfill or incinerated because they are either too dirty to be recycled or can't be. Overall, B.C.'s contamination rate is about six per cent.

Point out mistakes

Though the district advertises in multiple ways what can and can't be recycled by the regional recycling facility, waste reduction facilitator Rae Stewart said sending people out into neighbourhoods to talk to people and show them their mistakes adds a "personal touch."

The ambassadors will sort through blue bins and leave an 'Oops' sticker if they find items that can't be recycled, and a 'Good Job' sticker if the homeowner's bin is clear of contaminants. They won't sort through the bins and free them of any non-recyclable products, but they will let the owner know how they can improve.

"We're just out here to inform the public of what is happening," ambassador Sarah Summers said.

One of the biggest contaminants in the Okanagan recycling bins is plastic bags, according to Summers, which can make sorting through recycling a challenge.

"[Sorters] either have to rip it open which they normally don't do or just throw it out," she said.

Some of the other regular offenders include soft textiles, unwashed recyclables and crinkly plastic. All of those, however, can be recycled in other ways.

Some items take more effort

Soft textiles can be donated or recycled by textile recycling companies. Bottle depots accept soft plastics, Styrofoam and glass, none of which belong in the blue bins.

As for dirty recyclable materials, the ambassadors said it's important for residents to be cleaning items before placing them in their bins. 

"We kind of go by rule of thumb [that] if it's 10 per cent or less surface contamination then it's okay," ambassador Hayley Anderson said. "But any more than that can contaminate other things and cause more problems."

The waste reduction industry uses the term 'wish-cycling' for when people put products that seem like they should be recyclable in their blue bin in regions where they aren't accepted.

"Don't put it in there until you know for sure," Stewart said.