Apartment and condo recycling

• Talk to your building manager or check your building's recycling area for information what you can recycle in your building.
• Find a recycling depot near you to drop-off glass, foam packaging, plastic bags or containers, paper, newspaper and cardboard.
• Household hazardous waste must be dropped off at Kelowna Recycling (Battery Doctors) located at 1972 Windsor Road in Kelowna. Household hazardous waste are products that contain toxic, flammable, corrosive or reactive components.
  
• Reducing food waste is one of the greatest ways to help our environment, as it prevents materials from needing to be managed in a landfill and ensures the resources that went into into food production (e.g. water and fertilizer) are not misused.

Apartment/condo living can mean limited storage space. Here are a few creative storage solutions to try:

• Reuse milk crates or stackable bins to sort materials.
• Create a recycling station in a pantry.
• Transform a drawer with recycling compartments.
• Create a hidden recycling station under a bench.

Help make a difference in your building by engaging with your local community to reduce waste:

• Work with your strata or building manager to help expand recycling options in your building.
• Start a depot recycling car pool, where neighbours take turns making trips to the recycling depot.
• Host a recycling information party. A chance to get to know neighbours and educate building residents on how they can tackle their own waste. To book a recycling room revamp or recycling education workshop for your building email recycle@rdco.com or call 250-469-6250.

• Choose convenient, safe, accessible and well-lit areas for storage.
• Use consistent colour schemes for bins. The common colour scheme is blue for recycling, black for garbage, and green for organics.
• Add signage or labels above bins help residents know what goes where:
  
  • Poster - mixed recycling (portrait)
  • Poster - mixed recycling (landscape)
  • Poster - depot items (portrait)
  • Poster - depot items (landscape)
  • Banner - cardboard only
  • Banner - garbage only
• Replace broken bins and wash regularly to prevent smells.
• Involve your maintenance staff to ensure areas are monitored and maintained.
• Work collaboratively with neighbouring buildings to share waste and/or recycling receptacles, as this may allow you to provide additional programs.

Be sure to communicate to residents when you introduce any changes to your recycling program. Offer a move-in tour to walk new residents through your recycling collection areas. Share the Multi-Family Recycling Toolkit For Residents with all residents.

It is important to monitor and measure progress of your waste diversion efforts to ensure changes are working and that your waste streams are not contaminated. Report your findings to residents to help them understand that they have a key role to play in the success of their own programs.

Start a Green Team

A Green Team works together to reduce environmental impacts at a property. They are a great way to build community, engagement, and a sense of purpose around your building's recycling program, and encourage and inspire resident participation. Meet regularly to come up with a list of action items and to review the status of each activity.

Host a recycling information session

Keep your residents informed about program changes and consider hosting a building-wide information session for residents to learn more about the programs available. Involve strata councils, board members and interested residents. Hold the sessions during the evenings or weekends to increase participation. Invite a guest speaker to discuss different aspects of recycling, for example an RDCO Waste Reduction staff member or a representative from your hauling company.

Hold a Community Sale or Swap Table

Organize a yard sale or swap table where residents can trade or sell items in good condition for reuse.

If you have questions about your current recycling program, how to expand your program or additional services (e.g. large-item removal, composting), speak with your hauler. Some haulers may be able to provide educational materials, signage and labels or may offer additional services that would be useful for your building.