Recycling Collection
The City of Vancouver provides recycling services to all residential properties in Vancouver through two collection programs:
- Blue Box Recycling Program (for single family buildings)
- Apartment Recycling Program (for multi-family buildings)
In addition, the City operates a Recycling Depot for material drop-off.
For information on recycling for businesses or commercial buildings, go to Recycling for Commercial Properties.
Does Recycling Make A Difference?
Absolutely!! Removing recyclable materials from our waste stream not only reduces the amount of material that reaches our landfills but also reduces pollution and saves valuable energy and resources. For example, by recycling even 1 aluminum can, we save enough energy to operate a television for 3 hours.
How Are We Doing?
While we should feel proud of our efforts to reduce and divert the amount of waste we throw away, we still have ways to go. A waste composition study by Metro Vancouver completed in the fall of 2004 revealed that we are still throwing away a lot of material that could be recycled. For example, almost 10% of the disposed waste is still made up of recyclable paper and cardboard.
Where Do we Go From Here?
While Recycling is important it is not the only solution. There are many other things we can do to cut down on the amount of garbage from reaching to our landfills.
- REDUCE — by buying only what we need or by buying products that have little or no packaging.
- RE-USE — by buying quality products that can be re-used or by buying items that can be re-filled.
Metro Vancouver has recently created a directory of reuse and recycling services designed to help you answer the question “Where do I take this?”. The database contains over 1,300 locations within the Metro Vancouver region to donate, recycle or appropriately dispose of those items you no longer want.
Please visit Metro Vancouver Recycles for more information.
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