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City no longer taking plastic bags, stretchable plastic for recycling

Apr 17, 2018 | 3:00 PM

The City of North Battleford will no longer be accepting plastic bags and any kind of stretchable plastic or plastic film for recycling.

The city sent out a notice Monday, saying the material is no longer being accepted in the recycling program. As a result, the city requested residents dispose of their plastic bags, plastic film and stretchable plastic with their other household rubbish in their garbage bins in the city’s pick-up program.

“We need to start educating the public that the plastic bags are now to go in the grey bins instead of the blue bins, which is going to take some work because plastic bags seem like a natural thing to be recycled,” Mayor Ryan Bater said. “Unfortunately, this is happening across Canada. The market for recycled bags has dried up. As I understand it, typically these bags are recycled in China, and China won’t accept them anymore.”

The City of North Battleford announced last month Loraas Environmental Services would no longer accept plastic bags and plastic film/stretchable plastic for recycling because it no longer has a market for the material. Bater said most major cities have already made the change to remove plastic bags from their list of recycling material accepted for pick up.

“We are encouraging people to not only put the plastic bags in the grey bin but to start using cloth bags,” the mayor added. “If you know you are going to be going for groceries, keep your cloth bags and take them with you. Let’s not even use plastic bags if we can help it, because it doesn’t do any good to have our landfill filled with plastic bags.”

The city will include information on the changes in residents’ utility bills starting May 1. As part of its effort educating the public, the city is also planning a social media campaign and an opportunity for participants to win prizes by taking part.

 

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

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