The Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) is encouraging residents to be mindful of waste during the holiday season.

“The excitement and generosity of the holiday season can often lead to a great deal of waste,” said General Manager of Engineering & Environmental Services Kevin Paterson. “Each of us can make small changes like using reusable products for gift-giving, gifting an experience instead of a physical gift, and investing in rechargeable batteries. These little steps will drastically cut down the amount of waste being produced.”

For those products that need to be recycled after use, it’s important to know that the Recycle BC system offers the most options for recycling and is totally separate from the Yellow Bin system, which takes far fewer items and costs far more.

The curbside recycling in Cranbrook, Kimberley, and Fernie are part of the Recycle BC system – but they only accept a portion of the materials that are accepted in the depots at the transfer stations. This is because of the way the materials are processed. The curbside program in Invermere is currently not part of the Recycle BC program, so they only accept the same materials as the Yellow Bins.

Find a full list of what goes where.

The days surrounding Christmas will be the busiest days of the year at area transfer stations and landfills.

“While our contractors will be doing their best to keep up, however if everyone tries to drop off garbage or recycling on Boxing Day the bins will fill faster than they can be serviced. Please try to space out your visits to our facilities and have patience. If you arrive and bins are full, please take your materials with you and plan to come back another day,” added Paterson.

A Holiday Recycling Guide and holiday hours can be found at engage.rdek.bc.ca/recycle.

e-KNOW file photo

RDEK

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