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New Westminster – The City of New Westminster is proud to announce a major milestone in its ongoing waste reduction efforts: the significant reduction in curbside residential recycling contamination and its official exit from Recycle BC's curbside contamination reduction program. This achievement reflects the community's dedication to "Recycle Right" and their support for the City’s efforts to improve local waste diversion.
In 2021, the City introduced its Contamination Reduction Plan to improve local recycling habits and avoid fines of up to $480,000 per year for exceeding the contamination limits set by Recycle BC. Through targeted education, new cart lid labels, and a residential recycling cart audit program, residents learned proper recycling practices and helped lower contamination rates to meet provincial standards. This ensures the City’s curbside recycling program remains affordable, effective, and environmentally responsible.
“By sorting materials properly and keeping non-recyclable items out of their recycling carts, New Westminster residents play an important role in supporting the City’s recycling program. Cleaner recycling means more materials can be successfully repurposed, helping conserve energy and resources, reduce emissions, reduce recycling costs for all residents, and helping our region move towards a more circular economy,” said Mayor Patrick Johnstone.
Recycling becomes contaminated when items that are not accepted in curbside collection are placed in recycling carts. These materials cannot be processed properly and can cause entire loads of otherwise recyclable material to be sent to landfill.
“Reducing contamination in the recycling stream has important environmental benefits, and we encourage residents to keep up the great work by continuing to sort carefully. Keeping contamination low also helps protect residents from potential increases to solid waste fees tied to contamination penalties. While New Westminster is no longer part of a formal Contamination Reduction Plan, the City will continue to support proper waste sorting through cart monitoring, recycling audits, and educational resources," said Lisa Leblanc, Director of Engineering.
To support residents’ ongoing Recycle Right efforts, the City continues to host pop-up recycling depots at the Public Works Yard (901 First Street), giving residents a convenient option for dropping off depot-only recyclable materials closer to home. The next pop-up event will be on Saturday, April 25, 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.
For more information about accepted materials and the City’s recycling program, visit: newwestcity.ca/recycling
To find out what materials go where, residents can also download the Recycle Coach app or visit the Recycle BC website for a full list of accepted materials in English, French, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Farsi, Korean, and Punjabi.
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