It’s been two months since the Alberni-Clayoquot Regional District (ACRD) rolled out the three-stream curbside waste collection service for Tofino, Ucluelet and some surrounding west coast communities in November, 2022!
Thank you to our hard-working residents who are sorting and placing carts out for collection. We’ve reviewed the stats so far – find out how much waste we’ve diverted, and the top search items in the app below!
25 Beluga Whales Worth of Organics
Since launching organics collection with the updated Sort’nGo waste service we’ve diverted 35 tonnes of food/yard waste from the West Coast landfill. That’s the equivalent weight of 25 Beluga whales!
Collection Day Reminders
As residents continue to hone their sorting skills and become waste reduction heroes, we have a few important reminders when setting carts roadside:
- Cart Locking Mechanisms: Keep carts locked throughout the week, when not in use. Once roadside, clasp hooks to each lid handle of the cart. This will allow the lids to open freely when the cart is being tipped into the truck.
- Cart Placement: Face your cart with wheels to the curb and bear decals and lid opening to the road, leave 1 metre of clearance space on all sides of the cart
- No Overflow: Do not leave excess recycling roadside or in other containers as it will NOT be picked up. All items MUST fit in the Sort’nGo recycling cart only, with the lid closing easily.
Top App Searches
We’ve seen 848 mobile downloads of the Sort’nGo app by residents since launch, with 919 collection day alerts created and thousands of waste items searched including:
- Styrofoam: Drop off styrofoam items at Ozzard Environmental Recycling Depots, and consider donating your old egg cartons to a neighbour farm with chickens.
- Plastic Bags: Flexible/soft plastics like plastic bags or cling wrap DO NOT belong in organics carts – even if labelled compostable. Take soft plastics to the depot, or reuse. Discard compostable plastics in black garbage carts.
- Corrugated Cardboard: Belongs in blue recycling carts. Flatten boxes and cut down to a maximum size of about 2.5 feet, or 30” X 30” (78cm). Excess broken down cardboard that has no tape or plastic attached can go in the green organics cart, along with food soiled cardboard, like greasy pizza boxes.
Honourable Mentions
- Pizza box (greasy): In the green organics cart (these can also be used as liners).
- Glass jars: Take glass to the recycling depot for proper disposal. Glass should not go in the black or blue carts for roadside collection, as broken glass can cause injury to our workers and contaminates recycling loads.
- Tissues/napkins: Tissues and napkins with food waste can go in the green organics cart (otherwise the garbage).
- Aluminum foil: Belongs in the blue recycling cart as long as it doesn’t have food residue (otherwise, the garbage).
- Chip bag: This and other crinkly plastics like candy wrappers can go to the depot.
- Animal waste: In the black garbage cart NOT the green organics cart.
- Parchment paper: In the green cart (wax paper belongs in the garbage).
Questions? Contact the Sort’nGo hotline at: