Blue Box – Mixed Containers

In Maple Ridge, your Blue Box is for Mixed Containers. If you don’t have a Blue Box, you can pick one up at the Maple Ridge Recycling Depot.

Please start putting the following HARD PLASTICS into the BLUE BOX for Mixed Containers – this will be the new system after the 2025 transition to Recycle BC, but you can start early!

Place the following items in your blue box for recycling:

CLEAN & EMPTY:

-soup boxes (tetra-pak style)

-ice cream cartons 

-plastic-lined paper drink cups & food bowls

-food cans 

-tin cans & metal lids

-spiral-wound containers with metal ends (eg. frozen juice)

-aerosol cans (NO PAINT CANS – accepted at Depot)

-aluminum foil, pie plates, or tart cups

-hard plastic bottles, cups, jugs, jars, containers, packaging, & plastic lids

Since 2014, container packaging is collected and processed by industry under the stewardship of Recycle BC.

Hard plastics are sorted at Merlin Plastics on Annacis Island into the type of plastic they are made from, then baled & sold to be recycled into pellets for the manufacture of new products (bags, bottles, blue boxes, piping).

The tin is re-melted and formed into re-bar. The aluminum is sent to mills to be made into barbecues, lawn chairs and aluminum extrusions. Recycling saves 95% of the electricity needed to produce new aluminum from raw ore!

Larger scrap metal items and paint cans (including aerosol paints) can be brought to the Maple Ridge Recycling Depot.

All pop cans, milk cartons, plant-based beverage containers (eg. oat milk, rice milk, soy milk) and drink boxes are recycled through the Beverage Container EPR Program, run by Encorp Pacific.

Click to learn more about EPR, Extended Producer Responsibility Programs.