Reminder: No Soft Plastics in Blue Bins

When placing blue boxes out at the curb for bi-weekly recycling pickup, please remember to remove all soft plastics. Soft plastics include items such as plastic bags, shrink wrap, meat tray liners, and peel-off lids (ie. single serving yogurt containers).

These are not recyclable through curbside collection.

A recent audit by Multi Material BC revealed that too many soft plastics were ending up in Courtenay’s blue boxes. Mixing soft plastics with recyclables at the curb leads to contamination of the waste stream and could potentially mean that otherwise recyclable materials end up in the landfill.

Only plastic items clearly marked 1 through 7 are to be collected at the curb. Emterra will be increasing their use of “Oops” stickers when they find materials that are not accepted in the curbside recycling.

The Courtenay Return-It Depot on Puntledge Road and the Comox Valley Waste Management Centre in Cumberland are MMBC Recycling Depots and both accept some soft plastics.

For a complete list of acceptable curbside recyclable materials, visit the MMBC website: recyclinginbc.ca/program/can-recycled/

For information on what is accepted at MMBC recycling depots please visit:
recyclinginbc.ca/mmbc-depots/

To find other local depots (including non-MMBC), visit www.cswm.ca/depots.html

For even more recycling information, visit the Recycling Council of British Columbia's Recyclepedia:
www.rcbc.ca/recyclepedia/search