Photo: pixabay

The District of Summerland has managed to reduce recycling contamination by 33 per cent in just four months.

The municipality entered into a friendly competition with Port Hardy and the Town of Smithers to see who could drop their level of public recycling contamination the most between July and October 2017.

Summerland’s rate dropped from 6.2 per cent to 4.1 per cent, not quite as steep a drop as Smithers (-41 per cent), but still significant progress.

District sustainability co-ordinator Tami Rothery said they conducted community outreach to inform residents that things like glass jars, certain bags and styrofoam cannot be recycled in the curbside program, and instead must be taken to the recycling depot at the Summerland landfill.

She said Recycle BC’s criteria for what can be thrown in the blue bin is “complex… so it's understandable that there is confusion.”

For example, she said residents have voiced confusion over what types of bags can be recycled. Bags that are products themselves, like Ziploc, are garbage, while bags that are considered packaging like grocery bags can be recycled.

The Recycle BC system is funded by a levy placed on retailers, manufacturers and restaurants that supply packaging and printed paper.

“The district has provided feedback to recycle bc regarding their regulations and how they define the different categories of acceptable waste,” Rothery said. “We feel like folks are really trying hard, and are really interested in doing the right thing.”

She added that Recycle BC is considering tweaking their regulations further, which will require more public outreach to enable the district to reach its contamination goal of three per cent.