Coquitlam residents should think pink when they put out their blue boxes next week.
In May, as part of a pilot study, Recycle BC mailed Coquitlam residents who get curbside service a pink bag to put their empty squeeze tubes – such as those containing toothpaste and moisturizer – into. The deadline for putting the sealed bags in the recycle boxes for collection is the end of next week (Aug. 3).
Then the analysis begins. The study will look at how residents prepare tubes for recycling and what types of tubes they include. That will help determine if tubes can be effectively collected for recycling in the future.
“We’re hoping to find out if we can educate consumers to put these tubes in a bag and clean them out well enough to recycle them,” Allen Langdon, managing director of Recycle BC, told The Tri-City News in May.
The squeeze tubes should have no more than 10% residue or they’ll gum up the machinery used to recycle plastic. The study will determine if the collected tubes can be processed.
Coquitlam was chosen for the pilot because Recycle BC handles the city’s recycling, it has a good-sized population and residents have shown a willingness to recycle, Langdon said.
The results of the study are expected to released either late this year or early 2019.
More information is available at RecycleBC.ca/Tubes. Residents who have been collecting tubes but don’t have a pink bag can also request one at that website.
