Soon, Greater Victoria residents may have access to free and easy soft plastic recycling.
In an Environmental Services Committee meeting, the Capital Regional District (CRD) voted to move forward with services that would allow people to recycle their soft plastics from their own homes.
Up until this point, soft plastics have not been included in home-pickup recycling services, forcing residents to collect their soft plastics and take them to a business or service provider that collects on the behalf of Recycle BC.
Jeremy Caradonna, Victoria Ctiy Councillor and CRD Director says that he believes having to collect these soft plastics and deposit them appropriately acts as a deterrent for proper recycling, reading to an influx in soft plastics ending up at the landfill.
Going forward, Caradonna is pleased the CRD is now exploring soft plastic home-pickup options.
“This is an initiative that I have been championing at the CRD since early in 2024,” said Caradonna in a statement.
“Currently, the CRD does not pick up soft plastics, and while some people are diligent about bringing soft plastics to recycle depots, most of it ends up in landfill, or worse, dispersed in the environment.”
The first step in exploring this as a new service is having CRD staff report back once again on a soft plastic home-pickup pilot project that was run by Recycle BC and the Bottle Depot.
Additionally, the CRD will be in talks with GFL, the contractor who handles recycling collection in the District, about how much this extra service would cost.
However, Caradonna believes that there will be no additional cost to the CRD, or to taxpayers.
This is because companies who produce soft plastics are obligated to pay for their appropriate disposal. That money goes to Recycle BC, who distributes an allocation to the CRD and finally the CRD passes the funding along to GFL to handle the pickup.
“In theory, adding soft plastics as a fourth stream of collected recyclables should not add additional costs for the CRD or for taxpayers, as the costs are ultimately borne by the companies, although staff is waiting to confirm this inference,” said Caradonna.
According to the CRD, plastics account for over 12% of landfill waste within the District.
The CRD defines soft plastics as items such as stand-up and zipper lock pouches, crinkly wrappers, woven and net plastic bags, bubble wrap, most bread and produce bags, the plastic wrapping around products and squishy foam.
“The more diversion we do, the better for the environment, and the longer our landfill can operate,” Caradonna continued.
More to come on this matter as the CRD continues its process of researching reporting, outreach and decision making.
