City of Regina calling on residents to ‘clean up’ their recycling amid high contamination

The City of Regina says recycling contamination is triple the allowed rate and is urging residents to keep non-recyclables out of blue bins. Jacob Carr reports.

The City of Regina is asking residents to clean up their act when it comes to their recycling.

According to the City, the contamination rates of recycling in Regina are almost triple the maximum allowed threshold. More specifically, 18 per cent of items thrown in blue recycling carts are not meant to be there.

The City says contamination rates must be cut down to six per cent, or else the City will be forced to impose additional waste fees for residents.

“We need that level of six per cent in order to keep things running as smoothly as possible. So, when we have low contamination, we can have higher quality bails of recycling, which means that those bales are appealing to the end markets,” said Colleen McKee, SK Recycles director of marketing and communications.

Mckee said SK Recycles tries to keep those end markets as local and provincial as possible.

Examples include glass being sent to Moose Jaw and made into reflective road markings, or scrap metal being sent to plants in Regina and Saskatoon.

The organization is a not-for-profit responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling and can impose financial penalties if the contamination rate remains high.

“We know residents care about doing the right thing,” Carolyn Kalim, director of waste, water and environment with the City said in the announcement. “Simple sorting habits at home, such as placing recyclables loose in the cart rather than in plastic bags, can make a big difference.”

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Contamination in blue carts can tangle up in machinery and result in recyclables being discarded.

The City says the most common problem items in blue carts are bagged recyclables, flexible plastics such as chip bags, plastic wrap, frozen vegetable bags, and foam packing.

“We try to take an education first approach, and so we do that through multiple streams. We have mailed out new waste sorting guides to every household, and we’re often at events in the community handing out magnets and other educational materials,” Kalim said.

Flexible plastic and foam packing should be placed in resident’s brown carts or taken to SARCAN when dropping off refundable containers. Other items, such as furnace filters, must also go in the brown cart.

“When residents are thinking about what’s best to do and thinking maybe about their own pocketbook, we just encourage them to try and divert as much from the landfill, to keep our waste fees low,” Kalim said. “Then when putting material into the blue cart or the recycling cart to ensure that it is sorted properly.”

Those in Regina can learn more about sorting rules on the City of Regina’s website.