Using your blue cart

Bundle your stretchy bags and wrap

Bag all your stretchy plastic bags into a single bag and securely tie closed.

This includes the following:

• Grocery bags
• Produce bags
• Ziploc bags
• Bread bags

Bag your shredded paper

Shredded paper is one of the few items sorted by hand at the recycling facility.

By bagging your shredded paper in a see-through bag, staff can easily identify it as shredded paper and separate from the other recyclables.

Keep the rest of your recyclables loose

Put the rest of your recycling loose into your blue cart.

Make sure your recyclables are not packed in too tightly or they will not fall out of the cart during pickup.

Why can't I bag recyclables?

Don't put recyclables in black garbage or blue recycling bags.

The recycling facility isn't set up to unbag recyclables and they need to be loose to be sorted by the machines.

For the safety of workers, garbage bags are marked as garbage and are not opened.

Clean and prepare your recyclables

Empty your recyclables:

• Pour out excess liquids
• Scrape out food bits to compost
• Separate caps and lids from all containers

Clean your recyclables

• Rinse out all food containers
• Remove bits of food, sauce and other residue.
• Labels can be left on the containers

Cleaning tip: If you wash dishes by hand, use the dirty dish water to clean off food residue from your recyclables.

Dry your recyclables

• Put all recyclables inside the blue cart to keep dry
• Keep lid closed and clear snow off your blue cart lid

If you have extra recyclables that won't fit inside your cart:

• Flatten boxes to create extra room in your cart
• Hang on to your extra recyclables for next week's collection
• Bring extra recyclables to a community recycling depot