The Central Okanagan Regional District is about to go through our garbage again.
Peter Rotheisler, Manager of Environmental Services, says most people are doing a good job following the rules - but says there's still a lot of unacceptable stuff ending up in recycling carts.
Things like garden hoses, garbage, hazardous waste, electronics, scrap metals, textiles, even yard waste - and Rotheisler says if this doesn't change, the district faces financial penalties from contractor Recycle BC - money the district says it can recoup through higher residents' user fees.
The threshold is 3% contamination or less - right now it's 18%.
Rotheisler says inspection teams will have a look through carts, if they find items that don't belong they'll leave a sticker telling you what went wrong - and in some cases, carts won't be picked up until the offending material is removed.
Annually they inspect over 3,000 recycling carts.