Recycling Basics

What is Recycling?

Recycling is an environmentally friendly option available to all residents in the Regional District of Central Kootenay to dispose of recyclable materials such as glass food & beverage containers, tin & aluminum cans, newspaper, milk jugs and mixed paper.

Putting your household waste on a “Waste Reduction diet” involves the 4 “R” approach:

• Reducing your consumption of resources
• Reusing your resources
• Returning your resources and
• Recycling

60% of your household waste can be diverted from entering landfills just by recycling and composting. Non-renewable resources are being wasted and the time to act is now! Look at our composting page for information on how you can produce valuable material from your household organic waste.

The RDCK is on a “Reduction Diet” as Well!

Recycling doesn’t end at your local depot. Your Regional District is committed to finding more opportunities to divert waste from entering the landfill.

When you visit a local landfill or transfer station you will soon discover that we too recycle and compost! All our facilities are sort-sites, meaning that if a material can be recovered or recycled we make sure that it is separated and dealt with properly.

Take a look below to see how we deal with some materials at our waste facilities.

What Does Recycling Do for me?

• Recycling one glass jar saves enough energy to power a light bulb for 4 hours
• Glass can be recycled endlessly
• 32% less energy is required to manufacture glass from cullet (recycled broken glass)
• Reduces unnecessary waste
• Protects resources
• Reduces your disposal costs
• Reduces landfilling costs
• Extends landfill life

Milk Jugs & Frosted #2 Plastics

Milk Jugs and other Frosted #2 plastics are made of High Density Polyethylene Resin (HDPE). All recycling depots in the Regional District of Central Kootenay accept Frosted HDPE. That’s right ... it MUST be frosted and translucent, not shiny.

There are many containers that fall into the frosted #2 category, examples are listed below but be sure to check the recycling symbol before placing it in the bin.

• 4 Litre milk Jugs
• 2 Litre milk Jugs
• Windshield Washer Containers

The wrong plastic in a recycling load can contaminate the recycling process!

Plastic Categories

Not all plastics are created equal. Chemical compositions among plastics vary resulting in different plastic resin types.

NOTE:  #1, #2, #4, #5, and #7 rigid food grade plastics are accepted in the Central sub-region only.  The East sub-region will accept #1, #2, #4, and #5 rigid food grade plastics only. 

• Always clean your plastic containers
• Always crush or nest (stack) your plastic, it saves room in the recycling bin which in turn reduces hauling costs
• NEVER include oil or oil byproduct containers in the recycling bin

Newspaper Recycling

Newspapers account for only a small portion of the recycling collected at the Regional District recycling facilities. Interesting facts about newspaper:

Recycling one tonne of newspaper saves:

• 3 cubic metres of landfill
• 29,000 litres of water

Also:

• 15% of Newsprint is recovered in Canada
• Recycling a three foot high stack of old newspapers saves one tree

Currently newspaper is bailed and shipped to various markets for recycling by RDCK contractors.

Mixed Paper Recycling

Mixed Paper has the widest ranged variety of recyclables accepted in one recycling bin and not surprisingly yields the greatest amount of recyclables collected!What Is Mixed Paper

• Magazines and catalogues
• Reading books and school notebooks or scribblers
• Envelopes and everyday paper and high quality paper
• Office paper including computer paper and ledger paper

Boxboard including cereal boxes, Kraft Dinner boxes, tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, etc…

REMEMBER TO KEEP IT DRY AND CLEAN!

Interesting Facts About Mixed Paper

In the process of manufacturing recycled paper:

• 74% less air pollution is generated compared to virgin fibre manufacturing
• 35% less water pollution is generated
• 58% less water is required
• 64% less energy is required
• Approximately 80% of office waste is paper and of that 70% is not recycled

Cardboard (OCC) Recycling

The Cardboard bins provided at your local recycling facility are for the collection of corrugated cardboard only. Things to Remember When Recycling Cardboard

• Flatten your boxes
• Waxy cardboard is NOT recyclable

Glass Recycling

All of our recycling sites have receptacles for glass. As with plastics, glasses have different chemical compositions. As such the recycling depots only accept certain types of glass.

At present recycled glass is being crushed and used as road construction material at our landfill and transfer stations. Glass is a very strong base use for road construction and takes the place of other costly resources.

Interesting Facts About Glass

Tin & Aluminum Recycling

Aluminum and Tin are accepted in the Metal Can recycling bin at all facilities in the Regional District. Most people don’t realize the impact that metal cans have on the environment and their potential energy, take a look below for more information.

Interesting Facts About Tin & Aluminum Recycling

• The energy saved from one recycled aluminum can will operate a television set for three hours
• Making aluminum from recycled cans uses 95% less energy
• Every tonne of steel cans recycled saves 1.36 tonnes of iron ore and 3.6 barrels of oil
• Beer bottle caps, jar lids, steel cans, and frozen juice ends are all recyclable
• If you throw an aluminum can out of your car window, it will still litter the earth 500 years later

For more information on Recycling please call:

Recycling Council of British Columbia toll free at 1-800-667-4321 OR Visit their website at www.rcbc.bc.ca