Single-use items now accepted in curbside bins: City of Kamloops

KAMLOOPS – The provincial recycling program has finally caught up with the reality of household recycling but, according to the City of Kamloops, the updates to the residential recycling program won’t affect the average resident too much.

“For the average person, there’s not a lot of changes,” said Marcia Dick, solid waste reduction coordinator from the City of Kamloops. “I guess the biggest thing is now, plastic cutlery is accepted, and straws and stir sticks.”

Single-use items and packaging-like products can now be either recycled curbside or at a recycling depot.

“A lot of the items that were added to the recycling regulation were things that people would not have known weren’t accepted in the first place,” Dick told CFJC News.

The curbside program now includes aluminum foil, plastic plant pots, paper cups and cardboard moving boxes, which previously weren’t allowed, Dick said, because recycling in B.C. is funded by Extended Producer Responsibility.

“It means that producers of certain items are responsible for recycling them – and they fund the recycling programs,” she explained, “so what’s accepted and what’s recyclable might be completely different.”

However, the solid waste reduction coordinator said these items were often recycled through blue bin pick-up anyways.

Included in the updated regulations, depots can now take a wider variety of items.

“There are certain things like plastic bags, for example, there were some changes that affect the depots as well. You still can’t put plastic bags in the recycling cart but you can now take, for example, sandwich bags that you buy in the store to a recycling depot,” Dick said. “Whereas before, any of those Ziploc bags were technically not a part of the regulations.”

Items such as glass and crinkly plastic – like chip bags and cookie packaging — can be taken to a recycling depot, but still can’t be put in the curbside bin.

“The reason they’re not accepted is they are really problematic – they are really hard to recycle if not impossible if you mix them with other materials in your bin.“

Newly accepted items include:

• aluminum foil, pie plates, and baking dishes
• metal tins
• plastic plant pots, cups, gift boxes, food storage containers, straws, stir sticks, utensils, disposable hangers, dental floss cases, and tape dispensers
• paper cups, paper plates, gift boxes, paper bags, lunch bags, pinatas, paper gift bags, paper hats, and party décor
• cardboard storage boxes and moving boxes

For more information on city recycling programs, click here.