The president of the Bluewater Recycling Association says some people have become a little complacent about what they put in their blue box and that's created problems for recycling companies.
Francis Veilleux explains over the years they've added to the list of materials they accept, and that's led to some confusion over what is recyclable and what is not.
Veilleux says one common misconception is that things like Tim Hortons coffee cups are recyclable, which they are not, and it gets even more difficult to deal with when people leave a tea bag and part of a sandwich in there as well.
"What ends up happening is something in the industry we call wish cycling, so people wish cycle to recycling anything they believe is recyclable and if it isn't they believe it's our problem to deal with," he says. "So you get to the point where people truly believe that anything that's made of plastic, or metal, or glass, or paper is recyclable."
Veilleux says the containers that they collect should be free of any residue and ready for recycling because the people they sell to are looking for specific plastic resin or metals, and not anything else that might be left in the blue box.
He adds contamination is a bigger problem for material that is exported. They export about 10% of their material and it makes the process a lot easier if the material isn't contaminated.