‘Sad State’ For Recycling

Nov 29, 2018 | 6:30 AM

The chair of the Regional District of North Okanagan says the future of recycling will be a huge issue for the board over the coming months.

RDNO will no longer be accepting recyclables at its facilities as of Jan 1st due to a lack of global markets.

The change will not affect Recycle BC, which is used in Greater Vernon, blue bag programs, or privately-owned recycling depots.

Board chair Kevin Acton says they need to find a better way to do it, as less than 5 percent of current recyclables are getting to market.

“We had a presentation from a contractor earlier with all the details, and it’s quite a sad state actually. We need to do a lot more work around that and try to figure out a better system, so that will certainly be a huge part of our discussions,” Acton tells Beach Radio News.

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Acton says the board will look over the options.

“The contractor that talked to us said that less than 5% of our recycled efforts are getting to the market. China is turning it away. We’re sometimes basically paying other countries a $10,000 fee to landfill our recycling, so those kind of numbers make it very obvious we need to find a better way to do this,” adds Acton.

Acton says communities like Cherryville where RDNO does pickups at drop off sites, could see the biggest impact.

“I don’t have all the details, but there are some huge effects. We’ve definitely got staff diving into it.”

by Corey Fischer