Beginning in Spring 2025, we will no longer be collecting contaminated blue bags.

Roughly 35% of recycling in our community isn’t properly sorted or clean enough. Do your part to help us reduce contaminants on the recycling line. Take care to empty and rinse your recyclables, and make sure only plastic, paper, cardboard, and metal go in the blue bag.

Since blue bags are transparent, it’s easy for our recycling team to spot things that don’t belong. We’re going to start looking more closely to make sure all the bags we pick up are recycle ready.
 

Let's work together to make sure blue bags are as clean as they can be ♻︎

Need help sorting? No problem.
 

Use the helpful sorting tool on the eco360 app or call us at (506) 877-1040 for more information.

WHAT BELONGS IN THE BLUE BAG?

What’s okay—and what’s not okay—to put in the blue bag? It’s easy.

Recyclables include plastic, paper, cardboard, metal, small electronics, and more.

METALS
PAPER & CARDBOARD
PLASTICS
OTHER ITEMS

Metals - Blue Bag

Collected every second week – alternating with clear Garbage bags.

  1. Aerosol Cans (empty)
  2. Aluminum (pie plates, foil, etc.)
  3. Bottles and Cans (steel, tin and aluminum)
  4. Containers
  5. Pots and Pans
  6. Utensils
  7. Small Metal Household Items

Tips and Tricks

Pizza Boxes

Remove any crusts or leftover cheese and place the box in the blue Recyclables bag and the paper in the clear Garbage bag.

Food Containers

Empty and quickly rinse metal and plastic containers with cold water; it only takes a second or two. As long as nothing will leak, drip or spill out onto the rest of your recyclables, it’s clean enough for us!

Aluminum

Scrape off excess food and fold or crumple the dirty side in.

Paper & Cardboard - Blue Bag

Collected every second week – alternating with clear Garbage bags.

  1. Books
  2. Boxboard
  3. Boxes
  4. Cardboard
  5. Cards
  6. Catalogues
  7. Cereal Boxes
  8. Coffee Cups
  9. Drink Trays
  10. Egg Cartons
  11. Envelopes
  12. Fast Food and Paper Bags

The 3-Bag Waste Sorting System is designed to make sorting waste easier than ever before. For sorting information, collection schedules, and reminders, download the Eco360 app.

Tips and Tricks

Pizza Boxes

Remove any crusts or leftover cheese and place the box in the blue Recyclables bag and the paper in the clear Garbage bag.

Food Containers

Empty and quickly rinse metal and plastic containers with cold water; it only takes a second or two. As long as nothing will leak, drip or spill out onto the rest of your recyclables, it’s clean enough for us!

Aluminum

Scrape off excess food and fold or crumple the dirty side in.

Plastics - Blue Bag

Collected every second week – alternating with clear Garbage bags.

  1. Bottles
  2. Containers
  3. Cups andDishes
  4. Hard Plastic Packaging
  5. Jugs
  6. Medicine Bottles (empty)
  7. Bubble Wrap

♻︎ Hard Plastics numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7.

Plastic Bags (clean and dry) Grocery and other plastic shopping bags, bread bags, clean re-sealable food storage bags, etc. 

To prevent mechanical sorting equipment from getting entangled, put all plastic bags in a single bag and tie it.

Tips and Tricks

Pizza Boxes

Remove any crusts or leftover cheese and place the box in the blue Recyclables bag and the paper in the clear Garbage bag.

Food Containers

Empty and quickly rinse metal and plastic containers with cold water; it only takes a second or two. As long as nothing will leak, drip or spill out onto the rest of your recyclables, it’s clean enough for us!

Aluminum

Scrape off excess food and fold or crumple the dirty side in.

Other Items - Blue Bag

Collected every second week – alternating with clear Garbage bags.

  1. Small electronics (calculators, bathroom appliances, small kitchen appliances, etc.)
  2. Cellphones (only in blue bag if you can remove the batteries first)
  3. Frozen Juice Cans Lids, Covers Styrofoam (meat trays, cups, plates, packaging, etc.)
  4. Food and Beverage Cartons (milk, juice, broth, plant based beverages, etc.)

Tips and Tricks

Pizza Boxes

Remove any crusts or leftover cheese and place the box in the blue Recyclables bag and the paper in the clear Garbage bag.

Food Containers

Empty and quickly rinse metal and plastic containers with cold water; it only takes a second or two. As long as nothing will leak, drip or spill out onto the rest of your recyclables, it’s clean enough for us!

Aluminum

Scrape off excess food and fold or crumple the dirty side in.

WHAT DOES NOT BELONG IN THE BLUE BAG?

Food waste (bags of mouldy bread, containers half-full of expired food, meat tray liners), hygiene waste (diapers, tampons, pads, condoms, Band-Aids), clothing and textiles, hazardous waste (batteries, needles, propane tanks), cat litter, and tanglers (cords, hoses, cables, chains) don’t belong in the blue bags.

We’ve even found large items such as car parts, bowling balls, toilet seats, and televisions in blue bags as actual “attempts” at recycling.

We can do better, Southeast New Brunswick!

WHERE DO ITEMS THAT DON'T BELONG IN THE BLUE BAG GO?

Waste material that doesn’t go in the blue bag may belong in the green organics bag or the clear garbage bag.

The following items are okay to put in the green organics bag:

Food scraps, expired or moldy food, bones, coffee grinds, yard waste, napkins, paper towels, tissues, and tobacco.

Everything that doesn’t go in the blue or green bags should go in the clear garbage bags!

STILL NOT SURE WHAT GOES IN WHAT BAG?

You can learn what belongs in the blue, green, and clear bags by downloading the free Eco360 app or by using our helpful sorting tool.
 

WHY RECYCLING MATTERS

Recycling is the right thing to do—and there’s a right way to do it. Poor sorting negatively impacts our operations and the community’s recycling efforts more than you might think.

If you don’t properly sort your recycling, it can contaminate clean material, making sorting harder, more dangerous, and more costly.

Improperly sorted materials have a hefty environmental impact, taking up space and generating harmful greenhouse gases. Recycling also means new resources don’t need to be extracted from the earth and processed, saving energy.

We need to work together to prolong the life of precious landfill cells by putting only the right items in the blue bags to help protect the environment for future generations.
 


LEARN MORE

For sorting information, collection schedules, and reminders, download the Eco360 app.