Recyclables, sorted out
Q: How do I find out about what the Rainbow Road Recycling Depot accepts? They say to check the signs when you get there, but I’d like to know before I bring all my stuff there if they will take it or not.
-Scott Harris, Salt Spring Island
A: Due to the changing nature of what the depot accepts, they have been reluctant to publish a brochure or flyer of any kind. They do have a website they try to keep up-to-date www.saltspringcommunityservices.ca/recycling, but at times the website is NOT up-to-date.
With the help of the depot, the Driftwood has put together this list of what is accepted at the Rainbow Road Recycling Depot (click on image below to enlarge).
Click here to download a printable PDF.
In other Salt Spring Recycling Depot news:
* To-go coffee cups are a go! The depot asks that paper coffee cups be placed in their tetra-packs bin and NOT in with paper or cardboard. This helps ensure paper coffee cups get recovered and recycled when they arrive at METRO Waste Paper Recovery Inc. in Victoria.
Doug Stevens, plant manager at METRO, confirms that paper coffee cups that arrive from Salt Spring are, in fact, recycled. Even if they have a latex or plastic lining on the inside, they are still able to extract the paper part of the cup to recycle.
“Paper cups get pulped at a mill and the latex lining is skinned off the top and rest is recycled,” he said in a telephone interview in October.
Stevens urges that people rinse out their cups so they are “100 percent clean,” otherwise the depot could end up with a rejected bin; enough dirty coffee cups in one bin and the depot gets slapped with a “contaminated” label that will force them to dispose of the entire bin as garbage.
The best solution of course, Stevens says, is to buy a reusable mug.
*No plastic grocery bags accepted. The depot no longer accepts plastic grocery bags. However, most local retail outlets’ grocery bags are either degradable or biodegradable and could not be recycled anyway.
*Wine box protocol. Wine boxes with liners can be recycled at the depot. Keep the liner inside (it’s necessary for the depot to get the refund) and place in the juice tetra-pak category, NOT in the cardboard category.
Other Resources:
CRD Recycling Hotline 1-800-663-4425, ext. #3030
Nice job Amy, as usual, except your list has household batteries yes and their web site has household batteries as a no. Should I take all those AA batteries to Rainbow Road, or do they need them at the Driftwood?
In response to your question Gus, the Salt Spring Recycling Depot website is not up-to-date. The depot DOES accept household batteries now, so you can go ahead and take your AA batteries there. I worked closely with the depot to produce the chart on this blog, so it’s the official source to go by for now.
NOTE: The chart is also printed in this week’s Driftwood on page B19.
CORRECTION: The depot just informed me that paper coffee cups should go in their “miscellaneous” tetra-pak category with broth containers, ice cream containers, etc. (NOT their “juice” tetra-pak category). I’ve updated the chart on this blog so the info is now all correct, but the chart printed in the Nov. 4 Driftwood contains this error.