Canadian province to collect additional postconsumer items

Haulers and material recovery facility (MRF) operators in British Columbia are starting 2023 with the task of collecting, sorting and finding a recycling destination for a long list of additional end-of-life plastic items.

“These items include products that are generally disposed of after a single or one-time use, such as plastic sandwich bags or throwaway party cups, bowls and plates,” the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change writes in a Jan. 6 report.

The agency says the new regulation is “separate from the federal ban on the manufacturing and importing of single-use plastics, which came into effect Dec. 20, 2022. The province's recycling regulatory changes cover a broader category of single-use products and further ensure that exemptions to the ban are recycled.”

The extensive list of mandatory residential blue bin collection items is dominated by plastic, though it also includes a few nonplastic items. The full list includes plastic plates, bowls and cups; plastic cutlery and straws; plastic food storage containers; plastic hangers (that come with clothing); paper plates, bowls and cups (with thin plastic lining); aluminum foil; aluminum foil baking dishes and pie plates; and thin-gauge metal storage tins.

Even more items have been identified by the ministry as not mandatory within blue bins but as now welcome at recycling drop-off centers in the province. That list includes plastic sandwich and freezer bags; plastic shrink wrap; flexible plastic drop sheets and covering; flexible plastic bubble wrap (though not bubble wrap-lined paper); flexible plastic recycling bags (those used for curbside collection); and flexible plastic reusable shopping bags.

“By expanding our nation-leading recycling system to include more products, we are keeping more plastic out of our waterways and landfills,” says Aman Singh, the province’s parliamentary secretary for environment. “People across the province can now recycle a wider array of single-use plastics and other materials in their blue bins and at recycling depots. This builds on the significant progress we’ve made through the CleanBC Plastics Action Plan.”

“This expanded materials list will allow more material to be recycled, keep it out of landfills and stop it from littering the environment,” says Tamara Burns, executive director of not-for-profit organization Recycle BC. “Residents play a key role in recycling this material by enabling it to be collected – by putting it into their bins or taking materials to a depot.”

The British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change says the province regulates the largest number of residential packaging and products in Canada through its extended producer responsibility (EPR) programs. That program also “promotes and encourages companies and producers to create and design less harmful plastic packaging,” the ministry says.

The announced blue box and drop-off center changes “are effective immediately and are part of the CleanBC Plastics Action Plan, which aims to change how plastic is designed and used – from temporary and disposable to durable and reusable,” the ministry writes.