A wider range of household packaging will soon qualify for Calgary, Canada's blue carts, including toothpaste tubes, snack wrappers, meat trays, and foam egg cartons.
The change could benefit households as well, as the city said its recycling overhaul has already lowered monthly fees for some residents.
Here's what to know
According to CBC, Calgary's blue-cart program began accepting a wider range of materials on Oct. 1, as Alberta's extended producer responsibility system expands.
New items include select flexible packaging, foam products, tubes, and aerosol cans. The guidance for paper, cardboard, food cans, and plastic or glass containers remains the same.
Residents can toss snack packaging, pouches, and similar wrappers into the blue bin, giving households another option for materials that were previously tougher to deal with.
The accepted list also includes tubes from products such as lotion, deodorant, and toothpaste, along with foam items like takeout containers, meat trays, and egg cartons.
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Aerosol canisters from products including cooking spray, sunscreen, dry shampoo, and hairspray are allowed, too, provided the recyclables are empty and clean before going into the cart.
More background
Under the policy, producers are expected to handle packaging after use, not just make it. CBC said extended producer responsibility means those companies must collect, sort, process, partially fund, and recycle the packaging once it is no longer needed.
The city noted that single-family homes have been saving a little more than $7 each month since the program started, as some recycling costs shifted from households to producers.
The recycling rules are also intended to be more consistent across Alberta, reducing confusion about what belongs in the bin. Ontario has already made a similar blue-bin change, and CBC reported that most other provinces and territories in Canada either have extended producer responsibility rules or plan to introduce them.
What's being done?
Calgary's expanded list is part of a provincewide transition, but the city has also built the infrastructure to support the change. Circular Materials, a national nonprofit, is overseeing the operational side of recycling collection in Calgary.
After collection, blue-cart materials go to GFL's sorting site in Rocky View County. CBC said the city upgraded that facility so it could handle the newly accepted items.
More household packaging can go into the blue cart, but recyclables still need to be empty and clean so they can be remade and won't damage the sorting equipment.
Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon acknowledged that keeping items like tubes and containers clean enough to recycle takes some effort.
"Is the residue a problem? Absolutely. So the less residue in, the better. But we don't want to let a little residue prevent us from accepting and recycling what's a very highly recyclable type of plastic," he said at a news conference in Calgary, according to CBC.
Where can I learn more?
Calgary's blue-cart changes are part of a push to capture more household packaging. Related coverage explores store drop-off programs, packaging regulations, reuse economics, and container-return incentives in other places.
• ShopRite and TerraCycle teamed up to recycle plastic-film packaging more easily for shoppers.
• Minnesota lawmakers approved stringent standards on plastic packaging to curb single-use waste statewide.
• Researchers found bans on plastic shopping bags can shift packaging costs over time.
• In Tasmania, residents returned over 1 million cans in four days for cash.
• California lawmakers moved to ban all plastic grocery bags at checkouts statewide.
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