Vancouver introduces new household recycling rules

As of today (October 5), the City of Vancouver is changing its recycling program, starting with townhomes and apartment and condo buildings.

If you reside in what is called a "city-serviced multifamily building", you must now separate your glass containers (bottles, jars, et cetera) from the plastics and metal cans and put them into a new cart as soon as it is delivered to your building.

This stage will be phased in until December 31. After that, from January 11, 2016, to March 31, 2016, residents of single-family residences will be asked to do the same with their curbside-collection recycling.

So-called non-city-serviced multifamily buildings will be asked to start doing the same starting May 1, 2016 (phased in until July 31, 2016).

As well, the expanded recycling program will now accept newsprint and mixed paper in the same container (the mixed-paper receptacle or bag), and the mixed-containers cart/bin will now accept paper cups, TetraPaks, milk cartons, and empty aerosol cans (as long as they aren't paint sprays).

For more information on the expanded recycling program, go here.