Maple Ridge residents will have to go without the yellow bags for paper and cardboard for a few days, according to the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society.

The society is experiencing shipping delays due to the pandemic and will not be able to provide community members with the yellow bags they use for recycling paper and cardboard. These bags are used to help the papers and cardboard stay cleaner and uncontaminated, until they reach a manufacturer, to be made into new packaging, among other things.

Leanne Koehn with the society, issued a news release which stated that any Maple Ridge resident who needs a new yellow bag for paper and cardboard, will be added to the Ridge Meadows Recycling Society’s waiting list, and would get the bags as soon as the shipment arrives.

In the meantime, residents who have run out of the yellow bags, are encouraged to place their cardboard and paper in a cardboard box, and set it out on the curb with the rest of the recycling as usual. They are also encouraged to place any large, extra-large flattened cardboard under or beside the recycling boxes for pickup.

Kim Day, executive director of the recycling society expressed her disappointment over the shortage and said that it was a “shame we had to run out of yellow bags now.”

“We are currently doing a campaign to ask residents who mix their recycling together in a clear or blue plastic bag to use our boxes and bags and sort out their recycling into the different categories. Our workers pick up recycling at thousands of homes each day and it makes it much easier for them to be efficient,” said Day.

The red, blue and gray recycling boxes are still in stock and can be ordered at: https://rmrecycling.org/recycling-pickup/order-new-recycling-box-and-bags

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