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Among the plastics to be collected are bags used to package frozen and fresh foods and cheese, as well as cellophane from gift baskets and instant noodles.

Bubble wraps, coffee packages and net bags for oranges and other fruits and vegetables are also on the list of depot collectibles.

“Lots of these things are two kinds of plastic fused together, but there’s also things like chip bags, which are a kind of plastic-aluminum meld,” Langdon said. “Coffee bags, same thing. A lot of them have plastic on the outside and aluminum on the inside. How can you break them apart and actually have them recycled?”

He said collecting the flexible plastics is just the start, and figuring out how to recycle them is the larger issue. The pilot project is not connected to widespread curbside recycling programs in B.C., Langdon said.

Recycle BC will work with Delta-based Merlin Plastics Supply Inc., to research methods of recycling the flexible plastics, he said. The company was established in 1987 as a processor and marketer of industrial plastics scrap.

He said while Recycle BC is trying to do research and development on recycling the plastics, producers are attempting to move away from multi-laminents to pouches using a monopolymer, or a single type of plastic.

Prof. Leah Bendell, a marine biology expert at Simon Fraser University, said everyone has a role to play in reducing plastic pollution in the marine environment.

“I think it has to be approached at both ends, both the consumer making active choices, and the government stepping up to regulate and fine, if necessary, industries responsible for plastics debris entering our ocean ecosystems,” she said.