City officials announced last week residents can now recycle containers that are wrapped in cardboard such as Pringles chips, mixed nuts, and Pilsbury dough.

“We are looking at more ways to recycle,” said Beth Goodger, director of Hamilton’s waste management, who announced the new waste stream last week. We are the most comprehensive recycler. There are no more (waste streams) on the horizon.”

Ms.Goodger expects the new waste stream will divert another 80 tonnes of waste per year from the Glanbrook Landfill site. The cans with cardboard around them, such as frozen orange juice, will be removed from the sorting line with the other metals at the city’s materials recycling facility. During the recycling process the cardboard will be burned off leaving the metal intact.

Recycling the cans will help the city’s current 42 per cent diversion rate goal of 65 per cent by 2011. The goal was changed last year from 2008 after waste management officials discovered the city needed more time to reach goal.

Hamilton is one of the more progressive recycling communities in the province, with residents able to recycle cardboard, glass and plastic bottles, jars metal cans and paper products. Residents can even recycling their favourite container - Tim Horton cups, by throwing the cups into the city’s successful green cart containers, and tossing the lids into the recycling box.

Recently the city re-establishing a market for its polystyrene. Last December polystrene - identified as styrofoam which is a brand name - had been discontinued by the city after losing a customer for the recycling material. A poor supply and a high Canadian dollar meant a 30 per cent drop in revenue. The city decided it would continue to collect the material - residents throw away about three tonnes per year - and store it until a new market opened up.

Ms. Goodger said has recently restored its supply chain for the product.

Last year Hamilton recycled per week 835 tonnes of material. That works out to about 4 kgs of recycling material per household.

If residents are still unsure what to recycle, or what to place in their green cart, they can contact the waste management department by calling 907-546-CITY, or by accessing the department on the website. Residents can also refer to the city’s waste calendar, which was mailed out to every homeowner last month.

The city’s green cart program, another diversion project that has received enthusiastic approval, has reached about a 60 per cent participant level in the city. Ms. Goodger expects more households to use the green cart with the city’s introduction of a green liner that fits into the container. Waste officials hope the cornstarch-based liner, with a biodegradable logo stamped on it, will eliminate the “yuck factor” for residents.

When the green cart was first introduced, city officials prevented people from using any paper or other types of liner to capture the organic material. The result was a smelly and unsightly green container that turned people off using it.

Meanwhile, the city will be offering leaf and yard waste material to residents if they make a small donation to the Hamilton Food Share program.

On May 10, 17, and 24, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  residents can get three bags of the material by making a $2 donation. If you want to shovel your own material into containers, it will cost you $2 to the charity and for $10, people can get a front-end loader full of material.

Residents interested in picking up some leaf and yard material can drive to the Stoney Creek Mohawk Campus on Barton Street May 10, or to the Morgan Firestone Arena in Ancaster on May 17. The last chance  the city will be offering the material will be at the Fennell Avenue campus of Mohawk College May 24.