Recycling in Canada

Since the 1980s, most mid to large municipalities in most provinces have recycling programs, relying on curbside collection with either bins, boxes, or bags.

Due to the success of the project the City of Kitchener put out a contract for public bid in 1984 for a recycling system citywide.

[8] Curbside recycling of newsprint, cardboard, plastic packaging, and other non-food household wastes is the responsibility of the individual municipalities of Alberta.

[citation needed] The two largest municipalities, however, adopted waste-diverting policies at a very different pace.

Edmonton began a pilot project in curbside recycling for single-family houses in 1986 and adopted it citywide in 1988, expanding over the years to include more items (Christmas trees in 1990, and construction waste in 2008), and higher levels of processing including large-scale composting and capturing methane to produce energy.

[15] Canada has an extremely high rate of plastic waste of 3 million tonnes per year.

[16] Out of all the material that Canadians dispose of in the recycling bin, 12% is exported to other countries, such as Malaysia, where it is processed and damages the environment and the health of the population.