REGIONAL DISTRICT OF OKANAGAN-SIMILKAMEEN
CHANGES TO CURBSIDE COLLECTION AS OF JULY 1ST
Major changes to Curbside Garbage and Recycling collection programs are coming in July.
Alternating Recycling and Yard Waste Collection Weeks in Oliver and Osoyoos
Residents in Oliver and Osoyoos, will see no changes to their blue bag recycling program except for collection of recycling and yard waste being on alternating weeks. The Town of Osoyoos has already started these alternating week collections and the Town of Oliver will start in July.
For all RDOS areas, the Towns of Oliver and Osoyoos blue bag recycling occurs the week of July 4th to 8th with yard waste collected July 11th to 15th on your day of collection.
In Oliver and Osoyoos, residents are asked to not place yard waste in clear plastic bags. Plastic bags are not com-postable and must be removed from the process before the yard waste can be chipped. Instead residents can use compostable kraft paper yard waste bags or use clearly marked reusable containers. Reusable containers can be garbage cans with ‘yardwaste’ clearly marked on them. Large stickers marked ‘yard waste’ are being sent to homes and residents can pick up extras from their local municipal office.
BFI Canada Facility Manager, Roy Aitken, recommends residents choose their reusable yard waste container carefully to allow for easy collection with little mess.
“When you purchase a yard waste container, look for no ridges on the inside” explains Aitken. “Yard waste gets stuck on the ridges making a mess and leaving yard waste inside your can.”
New Curbside Calendars and other information will be sent out to home owners in June explaining all the changes. Mail has been disrupted so these will arrive as soon as mail delivery is restored.
Glass Collection Stopping
The final major change in July is the discontinuation of all glass collection throughout the RDOS. Residents will no longer be able to recycle glass at their curbside but can bring container glass for free to all landfills and the T-2 Market in Oliver. As of June 15th the Osoyoos Bottle Depot will accept container glass for free recycling. Window, mirror, automotive or other non-container glass will not be accepted at these depots.
For Don Hamilton, RDOS Solid Waste Facilities Coordinator, the choice to discontinue container glass collection was a hard one but the right choice in terms of changes to the recycling market.
“I’ve been involved with local recycling programs for over 25 years and the RDOS has become a recognized leader in recycling” explains Hamilton. “It is not easy to see a reduction in terms of the items that can be collected from your home. That being said, the RDOS is one of the last places in BC still collecting glass at the curb. Glass easily breaks causing splinters that can contaminate other recyclables and hurt workers. There are no more glass recyclers in the interior of BC making it expensive to ship. As well we often find some people don’t clean their glass jars making it much more difficult to recycle.”
Hamilton states that returnable glass containers like beer bottles are fully recycled when brought to the bottle depot. These bottles are hand sorted to be free from contaminates. Beverage containers, which get returned for deposit, end up being made into wine bottles often used by local wineries.
Container glass collected at landfills and participating bottle depots will be crushed and reused locally as road base and landfill cover.
For specific information on your Curbside Collection please contact your local government office or BFI Canada at 250-490-3888 or toll free 1-866-998-4888. The RDOS Solid Waste Department can be reached at 250-490-4129, toll free 1-877-610-3737
ext. 4129, e-mail info@rdos.bc.ca or visit www.rdos.bc.ca.