The latest RecycleBC audit of curbside recycling carts reveals that Penticton has reduced its contamination rate from 13.3 per cent to 8 per cent in the past year, reaching its target and successfully avoiding potential financial penalties.
“Our strategy this past year has been to hone in on everyday items that were causing confusions, starting with books. By highlighting these ‘worst offenders,’ we were able to develop targeted campaigns that raised awareness of how to properly dispose of each item,” says David Kassian, Sustainability Supervisor. “These efforts have helped tip the scales to bring down our community’s overall contamination rate.”
In 2023, RecycleBC warned that the city needed to lower its contamination rate to less than 10 per cent by the end of the year. Contamination refers to items that do not belong in blue lid recycling carts, such as glass, plastic bags, books, clothing, scrap metal and electronics. If not successful, financial penalties from RecycleBC could result in increased costs to residents and possibly less convenient recycling options.
The City’s Sustainability team launched a books recycling service in January 2023, which has since reduced the number of books found in recycling carts by half and spared 51,000lb of books from the landfill. More details about books recycling can be found at penticton.ca/books. Consequent campaigns focused on contaminated materials commonly found during residential recycling inspections, including clothing and textiles, glass and electronics.
The team also conducted community outreach, including a weekly booth at the Farmers Market, as well as by providing recycling education sessions to local stratas, schools and not-for-profit organizations. These sessions will continue in 2024, so any groups interested in organizing a visit is invited to contact the Sustainability team to make a booking.
Now having successfully reached its goal, Penticton will now strive to reach its new target of 3 per cent by the end of 2024.
“The challenge is on to continue this downward trend and reduce our community’s overall recycling contamination rate even further. We would like thank all residents for their attention to this issue so far and encourage them to continue this momentum throughout 2024,” adds Kassian.
For more information about recycling, or for more tips about what goes where, visit penticton.ca/recycling.