Authorities will soon begin poking through your recycling in the Central Okanagan

PENTICTON – The Central Okanagan Regional District’s recycling Ambassadors are hitting the streets this summer to ensure residential recycling stays on track.

Solid Waste Manager Jodie Foster says the Recycling Ambassadors Summer Student Program will be reaching out to residents through curbside cart checks and at community events to provide audits and education about recycling in the Central Okanagan.

“We understand that sorting waste and recycling can sometimes be confusing. Most residents are doing a pretty good job including only what’s acceptable to put in the carts. But recycling audits show there is still a significant number of unacceptable items going into our recycling stream, and that’s a big problem,” she says.

The district could receive penalties if the unacceptable items continue to contaminate recyclables, which is close to an 8 per cent contamination rate now.

The ambassadors will be looking for such things as garbage in recyclables including garden hoses, landscape edging, tarps, paper towels and tissues, and non-packaging plastics such as toys, tupperware-type containers, and laundry baskets.

They will also be checking to ensure recyclable items not included in cart pickup are not in the recyclable containers. This would include such things as plastic bags, styrofoam, glass, soft plastics, electronics, textiles and soft and hard cover novels and textbooks.

To find out more about what to recycle and how, visit: regional district.com/recycle

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.