(File photo: CFJC Today).

By Stephanie Swensrude

RECYCLING AUDITS

Many Williams Lake residents receive failing grade on recycling

Jun 12, 2022 | 10:08 AM

WILLIAMS LAKE, B.C. — Many Williams Lake residents are putting contaminated or incompatible materials in their recycling bins, potentially leading to the load going to the landfill.

A report will be received by the City’s Committee of the Whole on Tuesday (June 14) that details the rate of non-recyclable materials that were found in recycling bins across the city.

The allowed amount of contamination by Recycle BC (RBC) is three per cent of weight. The average contamination rate for Williams Lake was 13.87 per cent, and up to 16 per cent in some audits.

These numbers are based on weight, meaning if a cart was highly contaminated with plastic bags and other flexible plastic packaging, it won’t necessarily result in a high contamination rate due to how light those items are.

Another metric to measure contamination is by visual examination. The City performed an audit in May and found that around half of recycling bins “contain enough contaminated materials to seriously decrease the efficiency of the recycling system, and potentially cause several loads of recycling to be landfilled.”

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RBC is reaching out to cities that have a contamination rate over the three per cent threshold to request a plan to reduce contamination. The City plans to reduce contamination to just over 10 per cent by the end of the year.

“Collectors should be thinking about intense social media campaigns, paper and radio advertisements, and in person engagement for the education strategies,” said the report.

The report says that on collection days, bins found to have contamination will receive an “oops” sticker while bins with very little to no contamination will receive a gold star sticker.

If possible, crews will educate residents with non-recyclables in their bins. Other outreach and education methods include social media campaigns and videos.

A guide to recycling can be found on the City’s website.