Start the New Year Right with Waste Watch!

What better time than the beginning of the new year to reflect on our daily practices and consider actions we can take to benefit ourselves, our communities, and our environment?

For more than 20 years, the Waste Watch Program has been helping to keep PEI’s landscape clean and beautiful… by diverting more than 1.3 million tonnes of materials from our only landfill during that time! By following Waste Watch guidelines, you can ensure that even more materials are diverted from landfill, resources are conserved, and our future is preserved for generations to come.

Let’s get back to basics with simple sorting techniques in 2025.

So… Why Does Sorting Actually Matter?

This is one of the most important questions our IWMC team can answer. Properly sorting waste by following Waste Watch guidelines helps to:

• Reduce the amount of materials that end up in PEI’s only landfill
• Give items a new life (for example: the metals, plastics, glass, and paper items that go into our recycling streams are reused in many different ways)
• Ensure Category A Compost is produced at PEI’s Central Compost Facility so it can be used on local agricultural fields (which improves organic content in the soil and increases crop yields)
• Keep collection workers safe on the job

Successful Setup

Our top piece of advice to help you successfully participate in the Waste Watch Program is to have a setup at home that works best for you! Having a designated garbage bin or container for each stream (Compost, Waste, Recyclables) is the key to making sorting easy.

Your setup doesn’t have to be fancy, but some find using labels or different coloured garbage bins or containers is helpful for family members or guests who find sorting challenging.

Using Acceptable Bags

Since Day One of the Waste Watch Program, we’ve always said that no bag is best for your compost and waste (meaning you can dump material directly into your green and black cart without it being in a bag). But we also know many people prefer to use a bag to contain their compost and waste materials. The Waste Watch Program accepts specific bag options for each stream.

Compost:

These are the certified compostable logos that are accepted for Waste Watch.

If you are using a bag for organics, the only bags that are accepted in the Waste Watch Program are: paper bags or film compostable bags with a certified compostable logo. Pro Tip: use boxboard like cereal or cracker boxes to contain compost.  This will help prevent it from freezing or sticking to the inside of your cart.

Waste:

If you are using a bag for waste, the only bags accepted in the Waste Watch Program are clear bags with no colour (so collection workers can see that the contents have been sorted properly and ensure they are not a safety hazard).

 

 

Recyclables:

For recyclable materials (those that would go in either Blue Bag #1 or Blue Bag #2), you can only use a transparent blue bag so the contents can be inspected before collection (and because blue is the universal colour for recycling so the drivers know to stop and collect at your curb).

 

 

Tools to Help

IWMC offers a variety of resources and tools to help you participate in the Waste Watch Program:

• Recycle Coach
  • Recycle Coach is a digital app that’s free to download on your smart device (mobile phone or tablet). It offers convenient access to collection schedules, gives you notifications on your smart device that tell you when to place your carts and recyclables curbside, and allows you to use an interactive virtual sorting guide with Waste Watch disposal instructions. There is also a web version if you do not wish to use the app.

• Resources Web Page
  • IWMC has an extensive web page with downloadable/printable resources. From our sorting guide to our most recent newsletter, you can find all of our latest publications on this page.

• Customer Service Centre
  • From Monday to Friday, our Customer Service Centre is open from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M. Customers are welcome to call our representatives at 1-888-280-8111 with questions or concerns or to send a message through to our information email address (info@iwmc.pe.ca). From collection issues to sorting questions, we are always happy to assist!
  • If you call the Centre outside of normal operating hours or during the weekend, please leave a voicemail. One of our representatives will return your call.

Small Steps, Big Impact

Proper sorting seems like a small action, but it has a big impact. By starting 2025 with an interest and commitment to better disposal practices, you can keep sustainability in focus for yourself, your community, and the planet.

This year let’s make sorting a habit that sticks!