City of Prince Rupert curbside recycling program to be delayed until January 2022

The launch of the City of Prince Rupert Blue Bin curbside
recycling program is being delayed until January of 2022

 Residents of Prince Rupert will have to keep making a regular run to the Kaien Road Recycling Centre for the next four months, as well as to keep your recently received Blue Recycling tubs in storage.

That as the City of Prince Rupert announces a delay to the launch of their much hailed curbside Recyling Program.

In a statement released late Friday afternoon by the City it was outlined that the new start date for the Blue bin program will be January 1, 2022.

“Our Department wants to provide the community with the most efficient and effective weekly solid waste and recycling program with the least amount of service interruptions. At this point, I do not believe that our program is ready to launch, so our Department will use the coming months to streamline the rollout process. 

We want this program to be scalable and adaptable as we move to increase the amount of recyclables and decrease the amount of waste from each household. It is important that this program can evolve over time and, when possible, include a curbside organic stream. 

We understand this is a slight setback, and the community is eager and looking forward to this new service; however, in order for it to be successful, it needs to be ready.” --  Richard Pucci, Director of Operations and Intergovernmental Relations.

The City will use the next four months to launch a soft start to the plans, along with practice on city routes and a range of other measures to move the program forward.

Director of Operations Richard Pucci speaking to
Prince Rupert Council earlier this year

As for your Grey garbage bins, which arrived at the same time as the Blue Recycling Bins,  Mr. Pucci is asking that residents start to use them as of the start of next month.

“We ask that the community start to use the new dark grey garbage bin as of September 1, and bear with us as we continue to develop the program for the launch of January 1, 2022,” 

The Reasons given for the change in launch date include a number of setbacks related to COVID and interruptions to route and scheduling conflicts, as well as towards the use of new equipment and technology challenges.

You can review the full statement from the city here.

Our notes on the launch of the program from earlier this year can be reviewed from our ReDeisgn Rupert/Sustainable City archives.

For more items of interest from City Council see our Council Discussion archive.