Recycling

Non-refundables: A temporary Recycling Depot is now open at the Waste Management Facility (Mile 919.72 on the Alaska Highway). The drop-off fee is $1 per bag, container, or equivalent (max 90 litres in volume per bag/container).

Refundables: If you want to receive money for your refundables (e.g., bottles, cans, milk jugs, etc.) you will need to take them to a private Beverage Container Depot (e.g., P&M Recycling, Raven ReCentre). Otherwise, they can be taken to the City’s Recycling Depot or put in your blue bin when Curbside Collection starts in December 2024.

If you are currently receiving Curbside Collection – i.e., you have a black cart for garbage and a green cart for compost – you will receive a blue bin for curbside recycling services. Curbside recycling collection will begin in December at a cost of $12.50 per month, which will appear on their utility bill. You don’t need to sign up – your residence will automatically be enrolled! Whitehorse Blue Bin will be providing the service on behalf of the City of Whitehorse. Those who do not receive Curbside Collection can continue recycling by bringing their non-refundables to the City’s depot.

Existing Whitehorse Blue Bin subscribers that are eligible for the City’s curbside recycling services will automatically be switched from Whitehorse Blue Bin’s service to our curbside recycling services. Your previous $25 fee will be adjusted to $12.50, and will added to your municipal services bill starting in December. We’re finalizing the collection schedule and we will share that with you before service begins in December. Two blue bins and two yellow bags will be dropped off at your residence in the coming weeks.

At the City’s Recycling Depot, the drop-off fee is $1 per 90 litre bag or equivalent size container. Residences that are eligible for Curbside Collection will be charged $12.50 per month for the service. The total cost to provide the service is $25 per month, with half of the cost covered by funding from the Government of Yukon.

Dealing with recycling was never free. It has always cost money to collect, process and transport recyclable materials out of the territory. Existing recycling depots (e.g., Raven ReCentre and P&M Recycling) have received subsidies from the City of Whitehorse and the Government of Yukon to cover some of the costs of recycling. As per the City’s Waste Management Bylaw (2018-05), waste services are provided on a cost-recovery basis, which means that fees need to be collected from users – i.e., residents – to cover the cost of the service. This is why you pay a fee to take garbage to the landfill, or pay for curbside waste pickup as part of your municipal services bill. The City’s new recycling services are provided under the Waste Management Bylaw.

The vast majority of diversion credits that went to private recycling services came from the Government of Yukon. The Government of Yukon is subsidizing the City’s new curbside recycling program, reducing the cost for individual households from $25 per month to $12.50 per month. The City of Whitehorse has a diversion credit program of $150,000 per year that is distributed to recycling processors on a quarterly basis. This program is still used to support local recycling organizations.

Yes, small businesses can use the new Recycling Depot at the Waste Management Facility. Here “small business” means a business that uses a similar quantity and type of materials in the (packaging and paper products) as a single-family residential household. This definition is consistent with the definition used by the Yukon’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulation. Larger commercial businesses are not eligible to use this service and need to use private recycling services, similar to how the City of Whitehorse does not provide waste services to commercial businesses.

No, curbside recycling is only available for residences that are currently receiving our residential Curbside Collection service. Multi-unit dwellings can drop off recycling at the Recycling Depot at the Waste Management Facility, or use a private recycling collection service.

No. If you are currently eligible for Curbside Collection – i.e., you have a black cart for garbage and a green cart for compost – then you will automatically receive curbside recycling service. Curbside recycling collection (just like Curbside Collection) is a mandatory service.