As India announces plans to close it’s door to plastic waste imports, the TNRD isn’t sounding the alarm.

It’s quite unlike last year when China closed it’s doors to our plastic waste.

TNRD Waste Reduction Coordinator Andrew Roebbelen says at that time, they had two options to choose from.

“We could either figure out somewhere else to send all of our recycling or we could start to actually manage it within the province, and we chose that second option,” he said.

“So, instead of choosing a different country to send it to, like India, who’s now closing their doors, or Vietnam or one of these other countries, we now manage all of our plastic recycling in the province.”

He noted that TNRD recycled plastics get sent to a facility on the coast, Merlin Plastics.

“Merlin Plastics then sorts, cleans and grinds up this material further to a sellable commodity quality in order to be able to go to manufacturers and say ‘hey, we have this great commodity for you to buy,'” added Roebbelen. “That’s instead of us trying to sell essentially sell waste.

He said that recycling in the province is more expensive, but they’re also able to recycle more efficiently, because of the partnership with Recycle BC.

The TNRD joined Recycle BC on September 1, 2018.