B.C. glass recycling pickup suspended due to floods

The impacts of B.C.’s historic flood continues to reach far beyond the high water. For the foreseeable future, some items can no longer be placed in the recycling bins across B.C.

Glass materials and foam packaging will not be picked up as of Monday, Nov. 22, due to several factors caused by the storm.

Recycle BC says there aren’t many ways to move glass from receiving facilities to the end glass market location because routes through most of southern B.C. are still impacted by mudslides and washouts.

David Lefebvre with the company explains the end market location is where the glass materials are recycled, is located in Abbotsford, and believed to still be under water. Plus, there are fewer trucks available to haul materials.

“The flooding has also affected the availability of trucks because there’s a number of trucks that are behind some of those road closures and unable to get to us,” Lefebvre said.

Related Articles:

• B.C. defends order restricting fuel for parts of province as stations run dry

• Air Canada increases cargo capacity to Vancouver after flooding cuts highways

• B.C. expecting 500 troops by Sunday night, railways may reopen midweek

Until the situation improves, residents who receive curbside or multi-family service from Recycle BC should not take non-deposit glass bottles, glass jars, or foam packaging (white and coloured) to be recycled. This applies to those who live in apartments as well, and there are worries that there will be huge piles of glass left in the recycling rooms.

Instead, residents are urged to hold on to their glass in their homes until pickup can resume, and not dump it in public spaces.

“If people can keep those in their condos, in their apartments, and not bring them down to the recycling area — just the glass — that will have a huge impact. It will be better for the building, there won’t be a ton of material down there. And we will eventually be collecting this again,” he said about the temporary measures.

Related video: Stories of hope during B.C. floods

If you live in a building complex in which the waste and recycling room has a “mixed containers” bin (as opposed to separate bins according to container type), you are asked to keep glass out of there for now.

The alternative — taking it to a recycling depot — is also not an option for those materials.

Carboard, paper, and soft plastics will still be accepted curbside and at recycling depots because they can be baled and stored in a more compact manner.

“The other thing that we are quite concerned about is that people might take their glass — which they normally put at the curb if they live in those communities — and they might put it in with their containers. It’s a huge health and safety concern for people who work in recycling. We have conveyor belts that move extremely rapidly and having shards of glass on those conveyor belts mixed in with the containers…can be quite the health risk,” he said.

This does not impact deposit of glass bottles, like a liquor bottles, and people who do return their bottles can still do so.

There is no timeline for when service will fully resume.