FILE PHOTO
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/Regional District of Central Okanagan
February 24, 2023 - 11:00 AM
Kelowna and West Kelowna were fined a total of $55,000 in the last three months of 2022 because residents put too much contaminated material into the recycling.
“And we’ll see more unless some residents improve their curbside recycling habits,” the Central Okanagan regional district warned in a press release issued today, Feb. 24.
Recycle B.C. regularly conducts waste audits and found that recycling in the Central Okanagan has a contamination rate around 8%, “well above allowable levels of 3%,” the release says.
Residents are reminded not to toss trash into their recycling bins.
“When the Regional District finds unacceptable items, we provide education and if there is a lot, we’ll refuse to collect the cart,” Travis Kendel with the regional district said in the release. “Despite our best-efforts contamination still gets through, and there is a cost to that.”
The regional district says the most common contaminants are household garbage; scrap metal; durable plastics like laundry baskets, toys, tarps, garden hoses; books; construction material; textiles including clothes, shoes, bedding, pillows; hazardous waste such as electronics, propane tanks; and depot-only material such as plastic bags, styrofoam, glass and other flexible plastic packaging.
“While it’s encouraging to see most residents on the curbside recycling program doing their best to follow the recycling guidelines, there’s still unacceptable items being tossed in the carts, items such as books, scrap metal, plastic toys, plastic bags, and glass,” Kendal says.
“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.”
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