Recycle BC

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Nonprofit Organization

Recycle BC is a not-for-profit organization responsible for residential packaging and paper product recycling throughout British Columbia, servicing over 1.8 million households or over 98% of BC.

10/17/2026

☕🍂 Whether you're a fan of the ever-infamous PSL or not, if you forgot your reusable tumbler, remember the hot paper cup, plastic lid, and paper sleeve can all be recycled at home after you finish your favourite fall drink. Here’s how to recycle your empty hot drink cup:

✅ Paper hot cup → Containers
✅ Plastic lid → Containers
✅ Clean & dry paper sleeve → Paper
❌ Packaging labelled biodegradable or compostable

Separate the lid from the empty cup before recycling, and keep that clean and dry paper sleeve with your other Paper recycling.
Cheers to better sorting this fall! ♻️

Download the Recycle BC app to search if items are recyclable at home, or see a full list of accepted materials at:
RecycleBC.ca/Materials

10/16/2026

Last week at Coast Waste Management Association's annual conference, Recycle BC's Tessa Janzen joined industry partners for a panel discussion on Managing Waste & Recycling in Multi-Unit Buildings, exploring the practical challenges and opportunities involved in delivering effective recycling services to residents of apartments and condominiums.

Alongside Devin Goss (Mission Environmental), David Kassian (City of Penticton) and Avril Gilmour Ford (Capital Regional District), with Tim Ames (First Nations Recycling Initiative) moderating, the panel brought together perspectives from across the recycling system, from policy and collection operations to building management and resident experiences.

With insights from both industry professionals and residents navigating these systems firsthand, the conversation highlighted how practical improvements, informed by on-the-ground experiences, can make a meaningful difference in recycling participation and effectiveness.

We value opportunities like these to exchange perspectives, share knowledge and work collaboratively toward more accessible and effective recycling systems across BC.

10/14/2026

Post-Thanksgiving Clean-up Plays:

What belongs in curbside recycling vs. depot drop-off?

10/09/2026

Thanksgiving leftovers aren’t the only thing worth saving! 🥧
As you clean up, remember these common food packaging items can be recycled with your Containers:

✅ Aluminum single-use baking trays, including those used for casseroles and lasagnas
✅ Aluminum pie trays
✅ Clear rigid plastic clamshell containers used to package pies, baked goods and other treats
✅ Non-durable plastic food containers (e.g. plastic food takeout containers)

❌ Durable storage containers (such as glass or metal food storage containers)
❌ Packaging labelled biodegradable or compostable

Give containers a quick rinse to remove food residue before recycling.

A little sorting after your meal helps keep more materials in circulation. ♻️

More info:
RecycleBC.ca/Containers

10/01/2026

There’s still time to enter the Junior Recyclers Giveaway! ♻️

Like the original giveaway post, follow , and tag a friend in the comments for a chance to win 1 of 5 x $100 gift cards to London Drugs!

Already entered? Share your family taking part in the Junior Recyclers Challenge in an Instagram or Facebook Story or Post and tag to receive 5 bonus entries.

The giveaway closes October 15, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

More info at:
RecycleBC.ca/Junior-Recyclers-Challenge

09/30/2026

In British Columbia, as elsewhere in Canada, the residential school system caused profound and lasting harm by separating Indigenous children from their families, languages, cultures, and identities. The last residential school in British Columbia, Saint Mary’s Indian Residential School in Mission, closed in 1984. These harms continue to be felt today through intergenerational trauma, grief, and loss.

Below are several opportunities for learning, reflection, and engagement in the Vancouver BC area.

These events offer meaningful ways to honour Survivors, remember the children who never came home, and continue supporting reconciliation in our work and communities:

🔸 Cedar Rose Workshop with Avannia Thomas-Brown — September 26, 12:00–3:00 p.m., Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art. Hands-on cedar rose workshop with an orange ribbon added in recognition of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

🔸 The Making Place — September 27, 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Vancouver Art Gallery. Drop-in creative reflection activities honouring the day.

🔸 Truth & Reconciliation Through Film — September 29, 5:00–8:00 p.m., BCIT Downtown Campus. Documentary screenings and discussions focused on truth and reconciliation.

🔸 MONOVA Cultural Programs — September 30, 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., MONOVA: Museum of North Vancouver. Guided reflection and cultural programming for Truth and Reconciliation Day.

If you are interested in attending, please review the event details and consider participating in a way that feels meaningful to you. Thank you for taking the time to reflect, learn, and continue supporting reconciliation.

Consider supporting a local Indigenous artist rather than making your own orange t-shirts or buying them from non-indigenous sources. NativeNorthWest.ca collaborates directly with a wide roster of Indigenous artists to produce everyday connected merchandise while ensuring artist compensation.

For further information, please visit:
🔶 RecycleBC.ca/NDTR-2026
🔶 RecycleBC.ca/Indigenous-Relations

09/22/2026

☕ Coffee on the go? If you forgot your reusable cup, you can still make sure your single-use cup ends up in the right place.

Coffee cups and lids are easily recyclable and the material can be recovered in recycling processes in BC, for manufacturers to make new products and packaging from.

To ensure it makes it into Recycle BC’s residential recycling program, recycle them in your Containers recycling when you get home — just ensure the cup is empty and remove any paper straws before recycling the plastic or paper cup and lid.

ACCEPTED as Containers:
✅ Plastic cup (emptied)
✅ Plastic lid (separated from cup)
✅ Paper cup (no compostable or biodegradable cups)

NOT ACCEPTED as Containers:
❌ Compostable or Biodegradable cups or lids (whether plastic-like or paper-like)
❌ Paper straws. For both of these items, check with your community’s Organics service whether these are accepted in their program.

How to recycle these:
✅ Remove paper straws before recycling the empty cup & lid.
✅ Remove the lid & place both pieces loose in your Containers recycling at home.

More info on accepted hot & cold cups:
RecycleBC.ca/Containers

09/17/2026

This week at the Canadian EPR Forum in Québec City we had the opportunity collaborate with other EPR leaders, producers and partners working through many of the same opportunities and challenges across Canada and beyond.

💡 One theme resonated throughout: Progress is stronger when we work together. Whether developing practical eco-design guidance informed by real recycling systems, strengthening governance through diverse expertise and open discussion, or collaborating on approaches to plastics circularity, there is much we can learn from one another.

Key Takeaways Included:

🔵 Collaboration is key. Packaging PROs are working together across Canada on eco-design guidelines to support packaging design for better recycling outcomes.

🔵 These guidelines will be one source of truth created by the PROs that collect, transport, sort and ultimately market the material, based on real recycling systems.

🔵 Boards are governing in an increasingly complex EPR environment and composition is an important element to strengthen decision-making, mitigate risks and ensure diverse and relevant expertise to successfully guide organizations.

🔵 Boards and management should embrace constructive discomfort and allow time for curious questions and open discussion.

Our partnering First Nations Recycling Initiative participated on a panel exploring how EPR can support reconciliation, environmental protection and sustainable economic development in First Nations communities.

It was also great to see the Circular Plastics Taskforce (CPT), of which we're a participating member and board director, host a conversation on collaborative approaches to plastics circularity and share experience and perspective.

Thank you to the Canadian Product Stewardship Council, participants and partners for two days of thoughtful discussion, shared learning and collaboration. We look forward to continuing the work together.

09/15/2026

♻️ GIVEAWAY: Become a Junior Recycling MVP!

Put your family’s winning recycling habits into action for a chance to win a 1 of 5 x $100 gift cards to London Drugs!

🔵 Like the giveaway post.
🔵 Follow
🔵 Share your best recycling tip in the comments!

BONUS: Receive 5 bonus entries when you share your family taking part in the Junior Recyclers Challenge in an Instagram or Facebook Post. Tag so we can see it!

Closes October 15 at 11:59pm PT. Open to BC residents age 19+. No purchase necessary. One winner will be selected at random and must correctly answer a skill-testing question.

More info at:
RecycleBC.ca/Junior-Recyclers-Challenge

Address

221 West Esplanade
North Vancouver, BC
V7M3J3

Website

http://RecycleBC.ca/

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