The Green Bins, located at the Transfer Station are part of the Recycle BC Program. Recycling that is placed in these bins, benefits more than the environment. The green bins accept everything that goes into the yellow bins, plus an additional 76 items! In addition, the RDEK gets paid per tonne of recycling collected in these bins, saving taxpayer dollars. Alternatively, the RDEK is charged for every tonne of recycling placed in the yellow bins.
To find out what is accepted in the green bins, view the Elk Valley Recycling Guide and the Recycle BC Brochure.
If it can be recycled, it isn’t garbage and should be diverted from the Transfer Station. The yellow bin program accepts cardboard, tin and aluminium cans, all mixed paper (including newspaper and magazines) and plastic milk jugs (no cartons).
Grocery bags and household plastics numbered 1 – 6, along with mixed recyclables (cardboard, mixed paper, newspaper, plastic milk jugs and tin and aluminium cans) are accepted in the yellow bins. Plastic is extremely sensitive to contamination, so please make sure your plastics are well rinsed. If it’s a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 it will be accepted. Grocery bags will also be accepted. The only exception is Styrofoam – even though it is a 6, it is NOT recyclable.
The recycling numbers are a uniform way of classifying the different types of plastic and it aids recyclers in the sorting process. Note that sometimes other numbers are found on the bottom of plastic containers, but only numbers inside the recycling symbol are valid for recycling purposes.
The following plastics are not recyclable:
Look for the number inside the recycling symbol on the bottom or side of your container.
Because the regular yellow bins are sorted by hand, glass must go in a separate, specially marked bin for GLASS ONLY. These bins are easy to spot because they have a flat top with two holes cut in the top.
These bins are for container glass only. That means only container glass that holds food and beverages such as jam jars; pickle jars, olive oil jars, or wine bottles. These containers must be well rinsed with lids removed before putting glass containers in the recycling bin as metal lids cannot be recycled in the yellow bins.
The following are NOT accepted in the glass bins:
These materials contaminate the whole load and the entire bin has to be landfilled when the wrong glass is dumped in the bin.
Recycling drop off locations:
Green Bins are located at the Transfer Station, found at 1001 Highway 3.
Yellow Bins can be found at the Sparwood Heights Baseball Field, Englemann Spruce Drive, between Mainroad’s yard and Public Works Yard and the Silver Fox parking lot.
Appliances and scrap metal are not picked up at the curb with your regular garbage. You can take appliances and other scrap metal to the Transfer Station. If it is still in working condition, it can be deposited at the Reuse Centre located at the Transfer Station
Household hazardous waste is not picked up at the curb with your regular garbage. It can be dropped off at the Fernie Bottle Depot/Return-It Centre or you can find an alternate Regeneration Centre with Product Care.
At the bottom of most plastic containers you can find a small number inside the three arrow triangle recycling symbol. This number is a reference to what type of plastic the container is made of. Each plastic is composed of a different molecule or set of molecules. Different molecules do not mix when plastics are recycled, it is like trying to recycle paper and glass together.
The recycling symbol code was designed by The Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) in 1988. Since recyclers target post-consumer plastics, the recycling symbols are most commonly found on household packaging materials.
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