Waste Reduction week is not just about recycling.
It is more about reducing and reusing, said Leanne Koehn, with the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society.
She would like to see more people choose items in packaging that they know is recyclable.
There is a grey area around some packaging that consumers purchase everyday, she said.
For example, when it comes to breakfast cereal, the box can be put in with the curbside recycling, but the plastic bag goes in the garbage.
This is the same for the plastic bags that hold pasta.
The rule of thumb is that if it is stretchy, it is recyclable; if it is crinkly, it is not.
The foil on top of yogurt containers is recyclable.
“If you fold it and it stays folded and it is kind of just metal, then it can go into your cans and cartons with the tin,” said Koehn.
“If it pops back, then it means it’s laminated with plastic, which means it is not recyclable because the two materials are laminated together and you can’t separate them,” she said.
The lids to all jars can be recycled whether they are metal or plastic.
All egg cartons can be recycled whether they be cardboard, plastic or Styrofoam.
However, Styrofoam is not picked up at curbside and must be brought to the recycling depot, where it is separated into coloured and white Styrofoam.
Styrofoam that has held raw meat can also be brought to the depot, preferably rinsed. And the plastic that covers the raw meat can also be rinsed and put into the plastics for recycling.
Dirty tin foil and plastic wrap can still be recycled, again preferable rinsed to get as much of the food off as possible.
The plastic windows found on pie boxes and pasta boxes can be recycled in the plastics, as well.
“The whole program is to cover packaging and really anything that’s packaging should be covered,” said Koehn, adding that the program is funded by Recycle B.C. and is not based on the material that the item is made of, but what the item’s use was.
An example would be reusable Tupperware. The packaging that Tupperware comes in when it is purchased can be recycled, but Tupperware itself is not when it reaches the end of its lifespan.
“If the item is considered the product, then it is not covered in the program,” said Koehn.
When it comes to recycling the reusable bags that are used for grocery shopping, it depends on what they are made out of.
If the bag is made out of cloth, there are places in Burnaby and Vancouver that accept fabrics that can’t be reused again and they break them down for their fibres. Just not in Maple Ridge.
Blister packaging used for medication is not accepted at the recycling depot because the plastic and foil are sealed together.
Another big item that can’t be recycled for the same reason are potato chip bags.
Many of these items that are not accepted at the depot, Koehn says, are not accepted because there is no market for them.
When it comes to large items, though, the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society has a large item recycling pickup that has just been expanded to include mattresses.
They will pick up any item that can fit into a one tonne truck, excluding hazardous materials.
The truck goes out Wednesdays and Fridays and will take all appliances including fridges, stoves, air conditioners and water tanks. Pick up fee is between $40 and $43. For any refrigerant there is an extra $10 Freon removal fee and for mattresses an extra $15 recycling fee.
Waste Reduction Week is a national environmental campaign that builds awareness around issues of sustainable and responsible consumption and encourages new ideas and solutions. This year there was a different theme every day including plastics, textiles and food waste.
The week ends on Oct. 22 with the theme of swap, share and repair products instead of sending them to the landfill.