The South Okanagan is getting serious about contaminated recycling.

According to the Regional District Okanagan Similkameen, eight to 15 per cent of recycling that is collected from homes in the region is materials that are not accepted.

Contamination in recycling is audited by Recycle B.C., and the district can be slapped with fines if the contamination amounts are too high.

It used to be easy for municipalities to get away with having garbage mixed in with recycling.

Shipping containers with recycling are regularly sent to China, where those materials are then reused. 

In reality, those shipping containers had large amounts of garbage.

That was until China created a 'green fence' six years ago, and began sending shipments back to North America that had garbage and mixed recycling, according to the RDOS.

"We’ve known thousands of tonnes of mixed recycling and garbage were being shipped to China," Cameron Baughen said, RDOS regional waste mangement coordinator.

“Since then, the Province of BC has pushed to make sure that all recycling collected is recycled appropriately."

Baughen acknowledged there has been a shift in recent years on what materials are acceptable.

"Local residents have expressed frustration that some items, especially soft plastics, used to be collected but aren’t now," he said.

A province-wide program with Recycle B.C. was implemented in 2014 to regulate what is collected in residential recycling, and the rules have been consistent since.

"It's been getting slightly better, but not fast enough," Baughen said.

According to Baughen, workers are checking blue bins more often before loading.

The RDOS said in some cases, residents who put out inappropriate materials will not have their recycling picked up, and workers will leave a note providing more information on why their materials were left.