In July 2017, China announced changes in the quality control placed on imported materials with a ban on imports of 24 categories of recyclables and solid waste by 2018. This ban is not expected to have any impact on our recycling program. Please see quote from Councillor Ian Froude:

“We do not anticipate this change to have any impact on recycling sales from the Robin Hood Bay Waste Management facility. Recycling delivered to our facility has a very low contamination rate (around 3%) which is the lowest in the country. Because we do not collect items with high contamination rates such as glass or plastic bags our products are highly desirable by markets that we have established in Canada. Our low contamination rate is also indicative of the quality of care that residents put in sorting their recycling properly.”
– Councillor Ian Froude, City of St. John’s Council Lead for Public Works