CRD Exploring Home-based Soft Plastics Recycling

Hi Folks,

For the last several months, I've been spearheading a campaign at the CRD to start the home-based pickup of soft (flexible) plastics. A small percentage of people drop off at recycling stations, but most soft plastics are landfilled.

As a starting point, CRD staff will be reporting back on a home-based soft plastics pickup pilot currently being run by Recycle BC. We are also waiting to receive a quote from GFL, our recycling contractor, on the costs (if there are any), of home-based collection, starting with SFHs, and then potentially expanding to multi-family homes. (Picking up at multi-family adds complexities, so staff recommend starting with SFHs.)

The flow of money in the recycling economy works like this: Corporations who produce recyclable materials pay for these costs via extended-producer responsibility (EPR) laws and regulations. That money goes to Recycle BC who then pays for the collection services (in this case, GFL), with the money passing through the CRD (and other participating regional districts). What this means is that the CRD is essentially a "flow through" for the funds, and recycling doesn't actually cost the CRD much of anything. Today, in fact, we learned that the CRD has been making a very slight profit from these service. So it stands to reason that adding soft plastics wouldn't actually cost the CRD, or taxpayers, anything additional, but we need to wait on the facts.

We also learned that, until recently, soft plastics have been burned as waste-to-energy in the Lower Mainland, but recently have been recycled into new plastic products, as new markets emerge.

I'm happy to hear thoughts or answer questions on this potential expansion of soft plastics recycling.

Jeremy Caradonna