City expands recycling program to accept more plastic
Posted Aug 30, 2011 06:16:53 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Take a second look before you throw out that plastic container. Starting Thursday, it might not be garbage anymore, but a recyclable.
The city is expanding its recycling program to include plastics three through seven. With the exception of styrofoam, pretty much all containers will now be accepted in blue bags: Yogurt and margarine containers, ice cream tubs and detergent bottles as well.
“The confusion of what goes where and trying to figure out those little tiny triangles,” says Gord Helm, manager of the municipality’s solid waste program. “We’ve repeatedly been asked by so many residents that say, ‘Can we make it easier? Can we just put everything in there?’ So that’s what council is listening to and that’s what they voted on.”
Until now, the city would only accept plastics one and two. Helm tells News 95.7 there wasn’t a market for the other plastics in the past, but city has recently made a deal.
“The two markets that we’ve secured, one is in Europe but the other is in Ontario,” he says. “(The plastic) will be sorted through and shipped off and turned into essentially pellet-type plastic material that is then turned into those new lawn chairs or picnic tables or decking.”
It will cost the city about $59,000 a year to to expand the program.
