The City of Kamloops is seeking greater cooperation from residents to recycle properly, following a recent report showing consistently high contamination rates over the past three years.
Contamination occurs when material that is not accepted for collection, under Recycle BC guidelines, ends up in the curbside recycling.
“As a collector under the provincial Recycle BC program, the City is obligated to meet a contamination target rate of 3%,” explains Glen Farrow, the Streets and Environmental Services manager. “But a recent report shows the City’s average contamination rate for curbside recycling over the last three years has been over 10%.”
When the City fails to meet the target rate, there is a financial penalty from Recycle BC in the form of reduced payment to the City for its collection services.
Farrow says the City received 12 penalties totalling $60,000 in 2022.
The most common contaminant in the City’s recycling is garbage, followed by books, clothing, durable plastics, wood, scrap metal and electronics, according to audits performed by Recycle BC.
Audits also showed that a significant amount of recyclables were “unsortable” due to being bagged or nested. There was also a significant amount of material that is only accepted for recycling at Recycle BC, such as glass, styrofoam and flexible plastic packaging.
The City inspected over 7,000 recycling carts in 2022, with 88% of carts having minimal contamination, while the remainder had high contamination.
A new enforcement strategy will be launched for the carts with the highest amounts of contamination.
Instead of a warning letter left by the City with information about mis-sorted items, the new approach will allow staff to suspend recycling collection if direct contact and clarification with the resident is unsuccessful.
“It’s so encouraging to see most residents doing their best to follow the guidelines for curbside recycling,” Farrow says. “Unfortunately, warning letters for the really bad offenders have not been successful."
"The new approach will put some responsibility back on the resident to resolve the issue."
Some of the City's resources for residential recycling include recycling guides, recycling bags with icons, cart decals, the Waste Wise Kamloops smart phone app, a waste sorting game and a website with detailed information.
Farrow adds: “Our goal is to work together with all residents to reduce contamination as much as possible, and to avoid further penalties from Recycle BC.”
For more information, visit Kamloops.ca/Recycling.
*Thumbnail image courtesy of Canva.
