Blue Recyclables Tote

Find your curbside collection schedule here. You can also access and download your schedule to your calendar through our Cowichan Recycles App available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

If your tote is not collected on your scheduled pickup day, please revisit the Guidelines for Successful Collection to ensure that you are correctly placing your materials at the curb. The most common issues are:

1.  Incorrect spacing. Please space totes 1m apart from other totes and surrounding objects such as cars, telephone poles, and utility boxes.
2. An overfilled tote. Totes cannot be collected correctly if they are overfilled or have materials placed on their lids, which fall out and litter the roadway when tipped.
3.  Totes facing the wrong direction. These totes can be rejected as they pose a safety concern when contents are tipped into the collection truck

Have a yellow “oops” or red “we left” sticker on your collection tote? The CVRD reserves the right to refuse the collection of any materials that do not belong in the curbside recycling program. Call the Recycling Hotline at 250.746.2540 or 1.800.665.3955 for more information.

For up-to-date information about missed collections due to mechanical failures or weather-related disruptions, subscribe to CVRD newsflashes (sign up here), download the Cowichan Recycles app or visit the CVRD Facebook page.

Clean household packaging and paper products. This includes:

• Paper, paper packaging, paper cups, cardboard
• Plastic containers, bottles, and cartons
• Metal food containers/cans, non-hazardous aerosols and foil

When glass (bottles, jars, refundable beverage containers) is placed in curbside totes, it breaks into unrecoverable pieces which contaminates the recyclables and can create potential health and safety issues at the sorting facility. Please put glass bottles and jars in your yellow glass collection bin or take it to a Recycling Centre to be properly handled and recycled.

When styrofoam (foam meat trays, takeout containers, foam packaging) is placed in curbside totes, these materials break into unrecoverable pieces which contaminate the load. Please take styrofoam to a Recycling Centre to be properly handled and recycled.

Flexible plastics (such as plastic bags, plastic wrap, and wrappers) are not accepted in the curbside recycling program. These materials get tangled in sorting equipment requiring lengthy shut-downs and expensive delays. Plastic bags also tangle other materials making it difficult to separate and sort recyclables. Please take plastic bags and wrappers to a Recycling Centre to be properly handled and recycled.

If you are wanting a different tote, please call the CVRD Recycling Hotline.

All eligible residents are required by bylaw to participate in the curbside pick-up program and cannot opt out. This ensures that costs per household are kept as low as possible and encourages broad participation

No taxes are used to fund the program. The program is paid for by user fees.

Curbside totes are the property CVRD and should remain at their assigned address. If you are moving into an existing single-family home in an Electoral Area, you will already be included in the pick-up program and totes should have been left at your property by the previous owner. If there are no totes at your address, please call the Recycling Hotline.

If you’ve built a new house in an Electoral Area, you will automatically be eligible for the curbside collection program. Call the CVRD Recycling Hotline at 250-746-2540 to get set up.

Visit the sorting and baling recyclables page, or learn more about recycling end markets.