City of Calgary commercial recycling services

Business operations

The City provides the following types of commercial recycling services: 

Below, you will find more information about what recyclables are accepted with our services as well as other recycling services we offer such as scrap metal, wood and plastic film recycling.

Mixed recycling services

Our mixed recycling (no sorting required) service accepts the same materials as the Blue Cart program and meets the requirements of the commercial recycling bylaw.

Put recyclables loose in your recycling bin. Do not use garbage or blue recycling bags. If you use bags to hold your recyclables, empty all the materials into your bin loose and reuse/recycle your plastic bags.

Item Notes
Newspaper
Catalogues and magazines * Remove plastic wrappings before recycling
Mixed paper
Shredded paper

* Place shredded paper in a transparent or see-through plastic bag and tie closed.

This item can’t be sorted by the machines at the recycling facility so it needs to be bagged and sorted by hand separately.
Telephone books
Boxboard and corrugated cardboard
Glass jars and bottles
Food cans and foil
Refundable beverage containers
Plastic containers with the recycling symbols 1-7 * No polystyrene foam
Plastic bags, plastic wrap and bubble wrap

* Bundle plastic bags, clean plastic wrap and bubble wrap into a single transparent or see-through bag and tie closed.

Transparent bags such as grocery bags or blue recycling bags no larger than 170 litres are acceptable to use for bagging your soft plastics.
Juice and soup boxes

Other recycling services

Waste & Recycling Services also offers additional recycling options for large commercial quantities of other recyclable materials.

These materials must be set up as a separate recycling service from the mixed recycling items above to ensure proper collection and recycling of materials.

Certain conditions must be met in order to set up service for the below materials. Please contact 311 for more information.

Scrap metal recycling

  • Fixtures and fittings
  • Sheeting
  • Automotive parts
  • Metal plumbing and racks
  • Galvanized metal, rebar or coat hangers

Unfinished wood recycling

  • Dimensional lumber
  • Wooden pallets
  • Other items made of raw and unprocessed wood

Plastic film recycling

  • Clear plastic film (polyethylene)
  • Film wrap
  • Shrink wrap
  • Stretch wrap

We do regular research with businesses to better understand the outlook and viewpoint of the business community. If you are a business owner, leader or manager, join our online business research panel, Business Perspectives.

Join the Business Perspectives Panel
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