SEATTLE (Recycling Monster): The Canadian province of British Columbia (B.C) announced plans to significantly increase the types of items accepted by its residential blue box program.
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According to the British Columbia Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, the recycling boxes and provincial recycling depots will start accepting a wider range of new items including single-use plastics. The extended list of additional end-of-life plastic items comprise single-use plastic sandwich bags, party cups, bowls and plates. In addition, it will also accept plastic food storage containers, plastic cutlery and straws. The accepted non-plastic items include aluminum foil baking dishes and pie plates and aluminum foil and thin gauge metal storage tins.
The addition of more items to B.C.’s recycling system are part of the CleanBC Plastics Action Plan and will be effective immediately. It is expected to keep more materials out of landfills, thus preventing them from littering the environment.
Aman Singh, the B.C. parliamentary secretary for environment noted that the recently announced expansion of the recycling system to include more products will help to keep more plastic out of our waterways and landfills.