Diapers, glass, needles, knives, food waste found in recycling bins: RDCO – Okanagan | 24CA News
The Regional District of Central Okanagan has issued a reminder to residents to assume twice earlier than placing something of their curbside recycling bins.
“Don’t just put it in your recycle bin because you think it might be recyclable,” mentioned Travis Kendel, RDCO engineering companies supervisor. “Chances are you think it might be recyclable, but it probably isn’t recyclable.”
In current months, there have been so many contaminants present in recycling bins, Recycle BC has imposed hefty fines inside the regional district.
“RecycleBC has been very lenient,” Kendel mentioned. ” We’ve been placing in our greatest effort for the previous couple of years to actually get our contamination ranges down and sadly, we haven’t seen the rise in efficiency that we wish to. Recycle BC, they’re beginning to crack down on us”
In the final quarter of 2022, a complete of $55,000 in penalties have been utilized to the City of Kelowna and the City of West Kelowna.
“Every time audits are done and RecycleBC finds contaminants that don’t belong there, it’s a $5,000 fine for every truck that’s contaminated,” Kendel informed Global News.
At the Cascades recycling plant in Kelowna, workers must type recyclable gadgets from the contaminants they see far too usually.
“Feminine hygiene products, we get a lot of diapers, adult diapers, glass is still a huge contamination … needles on a regular basis, knives, more and more knives, sharp objects. A lot of unfortunate things like food waste food,” mentioned Steve Fast, manufacturing supervisor with Cascades.
Fast added that the issue of contaminants appears to have gotten worse.
“We ship out a huge garbage bin every day of just garbage, of material we get,” Fast mentioned.
“So it never seems to stop. It hasn’t gotten better in the years, and, in some ways, it gets worse, with the addition of some of the new products that they see, like chip bags and foil bags.”
According to CORD, waste audits carried out frequently by Recycle BC present contamination within the area’s curbside recycling carts common round eight per cent, effectively above allowable ranges of three per cent.
“We’re floating somewhere between two per cent on our best days and 20 per cent on our worst days,” mentioned Kendel. “And that’s wildly unacceptable.”
Kendel mentioned that the current fines imposed have an effect on each resident as a result of they’re coated by taxpayer {dollars}.
“That $55,000 in fines could be used by each community in a way that’s most beneficial to them,” Kendel mentioned.
Kendel hopes the fines remind the general public to examine the information on what can and can’t be recycled.
The CORD information could be discovered right here.
Fast, for his half, hopes residents additionally think about workers members on the recycling plant earlier than throwing something and the whole lot into the blue bin.
“Please remember that people have to touch this stuff,” Fast mentioned.
“So if you wouldn’t want to stick your hand in your own bin because you’re going to throw in your garbage and your diapers and your needles, please remember and respect our staff and their safety before it before it goes anywhere else.”
© 2023 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
