Nonprofit Ocean Legacy Foundation partnered with the Regional District of Mount Waddington to open an Ocean Plastic Depot at 7 Mile Landfill and Recycling Centre. | Courtesy of the Ocean Legacy Foundation

British Columbians have another place to recycle plastics collected during shoreline, ocean and industrial cleanups.

Nonprofit Ocean Legacy Foundation partnered with the Regional District of Mount Waddington to open an Ocean Plastic Depot at 7 Mile Landfill and Recycling Centre. Items such as marine debris, netting, rope, polystyrene foam, hard plastic, some buoys, and abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear are accepted at the new location.

All collected materials are sent just under 300 miles to the Ocean Legacy processing center at Steveston Harbour, British Columbia to be sorted, cleaned and recycled.

The 7 Mile Ocean Plastics Depot is the fourth in British Columbia. Others are located in Powell River, Ucluelet and Cumberland. There are two more under development in Prince Rupert and the Lower Sunshine Coast.

Chloé Dubois, executive director of the Ocean Legacy Foundation, said in a press release that the depot “continues to enhance our growing capacity to capture wasted plastics, divert them from landfills and repurpose the materials in a way that fuels innovative manufacturing technologies.”

More stories about marine debris