Throughout the last couple of months, approximately 13,000 pink bins were delivered by WCS’s Dave Magnusson and his team of swampers to the residents of West Vancouver, launching a permanent new flexible plastics recycling program starting June 2nd 2025. With this new program it is now more convenient for residents to recycle their flexible plastics and also to keep them out of landfills!
WCS was proud to participate in a foam & film curbside collection pilot program that was launched in West Vancouver that began in November 2021 and ended in May 2022 and was deemed successful, providing insights to the rollout of a permanent program. West Vancouver was originally chosen for the pilot program due to the city not having a depot for the flexible plastics to be taken to. All flexible plastic collected will be recycled into resins to make durable plastic products.
Types of accepted flexible plastics for collection include:
- Plastic bags (for bread, produce, bulk foods)
- Overwrap (for toilet paper, paper towels, beverage flats)
- Stand‑up & zipper‑lock pouches (for granola, grains, dried fruit)
- Crinkly wrappers & bags (cereal box liners, chip bags, pasta bags)
- Packaging with plastic seals (for deli meats, sliced cheese)
- Plastic net bags (for oranges, lemons, avocados, rice)
- Bubble wrap & other protective packaging
Similarly to hard plastics collection some contamination is found, one of the most common items of contamination being found is hard shell containers with a soft plastic seal lid. The entire thing is being placed in the pink bin, when in reality the flexible lid should go into flexible plastics, while the rigid bottom should still go into the containers stream.
Flexible plastics can be set out for pickup when they have been emptied and rinsed, bundled into another plastic bag and set out for collection (bag-in-bag system); there will be no changes for the other curbside items.
Residents of BC are able to recycle their flexible plastics by collecting it all and taking it to a depot to be recycled, West Vancouver and Maple Ridge are two of the first municipality-wide applications of curbside flexible plastics pick up service. Residents of West Vancouver can find their collection schedule at: https://westvancouver.ca/services/garbage-recycling/collection-schedules.
Recycle BC is a not-for-profit organization funded by producers and manufacturers of such plastic packaging, which incentivizes the reduction of waste and packaging. We look forward to the program continuing to grow and expand as resources become available, and being the service provider for more municipalities in the future!
Author: Brynn Wallace