Starting June 29, Nelson residents will put their curbside recycling in a reusable bin, not in a plastic bag.
The city, which has purchased 4,000 bins for $80,000, will distribute them free to households including legal suites during the month of June.
Nothing else about recycling will change.
“The thing we most want people to know,” said Nelson’s public works director Colin Innes, “is that it is just a change in receptacle. Everything else stays the same.”
Recycle BC is making this change across the province. The non-profit organization is responsible for residential packaging and paper recycling in B.C.
The city picks up recycling from Nelson curbsides for Recycle BC on contract.
Innes said city crews will accept no substitutes – residents must use the bin supplied by the city. The container will hold 121 litres, or the contents of two to four average blue bags.
If you move, your bin stays with the property.
The city did not purchase bins with wheels, Innes said, because they would be considerably heavier and more expensive, and wheels tend to break.
Don’t do this
Innes said the most common contaminant Nelson residents tend to put in their recycling is unwashed plastic jars from foods like mayonnaise or peanut butter. This and other recycling errors cause an average 20 rejected bags per week, he said.
In the new era of bins, Innes said crews will reject the contents of the bin if they detect contamination or they may simply remove the contaminant and leave it in the bin.
The city’s list of what can and cannot be put in curbside recycling can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y75pscqp
A list of what is acceptable for recycling at Grohman or any other site run by the Regional District of Central Kootenay can be found at https://tinyurl.com/y9wtymkf.
New garbage truck
Nelson’s long-awaited new garbage truck is being manufactured now, Innes said.
“It’s a Labrie split rear-load truck on an International chassis,” Innes says. “It is a 60-40 split: the 60 is recyclables because they take up more volume, and 40 will take the garbage, and it has an eight-to-one compaction ratio. The existing is five-to-one.”
He said the new truck, which will replace the current one, is expected to arrive in the fall.
Related:
• City of Nelson will buy 4,000 household recycling bins
• Nelson: Goodbye blue bags, hello new garbage truck
• Nelson’s garbage and recycling fees unchanged for 2019
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bill.metcalfe@nelsonstar.com
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