Cranbrook’s recycling program has been running for about six months and an impressive amount of recycling has been collected from over 6,236 households.
City staff said contractor GFL has picked up 44,376 recycling carts worth of material since May 3rd, 2021.
“The community has really embraced and is strongly supporting this new service. I am very happy to see the success we’re having with curbside recycling for our residents,” said Mayor Lee Pratt.
“I want to again thank our staff for all their hard work and thank the RDEK and RecycleBC for working closely with us funding the purchase of the recycling carts, and special thanks to RecycleBC for funding the majority of the collection fees.”
According to city staff, the average contamination rate in the collection stream is at about 6.5 per cent, a number the city is wanting to get down to around 3 per cent.
The higher rate is due to some residents leaving common not accepted materials in bins.
This includes things like hard and softcover books, flexible packagings, like chip bags, materials with food residue, scrap metal and glass.
“RecycleBC routinely completes random audits on the recycling materials collected from our curbside recycling program,” said Katelyn Pocha, Water & Wastewater Project Manager with the City.
“A sample of the daily curbside collection recycling material is collected, and that material is categorized and weighed to determine the contamination rate.”
Materials like glass and flexible packaging are recyclable but they need to be dropped off at the RecycleBC Depot at the Cranbrook Transfer Station.
