By Monique Arseneau on June 17, 2026 Verified by Google Recycling Alternative

Recycling Alternative is living up to it's name, but not it's duty. Instead of being properly directed to recycling facilities, the waste is overflowing onto the ground for weeks without pickup, and recyclables are being redirected to the landfill. Numerous buildings in Vancouver and False Creek are being left with overflowing bins and hazardous conditions. It's time to get back to recycling and forget about this "alternative" plan that has proven over the last 5 months that it's not working.

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By ALDEN on May 27, 2026 Verified by Google Recycling Alternative

Recycling Alternative took over from WM earlier this year and the service our property has been receiving has been non-existent. Our Recycling has not been picked up for weeks and staff has to manually remove containers, paper etc. from the bins into bags and then place them in the compactor to keep the bins from overflowing.

Residents are complaining about the cleanliness and staff is spending many hours per week trying to manage the recylcing areas which becomes unmanageable when you are not receiving service.

Recycle BC and the City of Vancouver should seriously re-consider their decision to hire this contractor as the entire city is suffering.

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By Tracy Po on May 25, 2026 Verified by Google Recycling Alternative

Cross-Posting This Review on RecycleBC, as this pertains to their Recycling Alternatives contract:

I am a building manager for a 71 unit apartment building in downtown Vancouver.

Our last pick up with Waste Management was February 9th, which left us to wait an additional 4 days past our regular pick up, in order to reach our new pick up date of February 19th with Recycling Alternatives.

This was missed. Despite repeated calls and emails since February 23rd, I could not secure any commitment from Recycling Alternatives to provide a replacement pick up. I was either advised that no additional pickup would be made or that I was "still on the list".

On February 24th, I was advised that "we've put you on our high priority missed collection route tomorrow, so your collections should be completed then."

It was not completed and I was forced to contact a 3rd party to deal with over 2 weeks of missed pickups.

Recycling Alternatives refuses to cover the invoice and advised us that a pickup did occur the next day.

Which it did not. Our security records prove that Recycling Alternatives has not attempted to enter our building at all since receiving a fob.

As of this date, we are still waiting for our pick up. Our next scheduled pick up is this Thursday. This will be our 3rd week without service.

Shout out to Mike Winnitoy (Customer Service), Pierce McKernan (Senior Account Manager), and Jeff Wint (Senior Account Manager) for absolutely useless communication and service.

March 5th update:

The drivers have now missed our regularly scheduled pickup for the 2nd week in a row. They have advised that the key I gave them in July has gone missing.

March 12th update, 10am:

We finally received our recovery pick up on March 6th. However it is now the day of our regular weekly pick up and I have still received no response from Recycling Alternatives or RecycleBC about the missing keys.

March 24th update:

After several encouraging emails from Louise, she promptly reimbursed me for providing a new set of keys to the building. She came personally to the building to meet me and understand the site and was incredibly professional and apologetic about the entire situation.

Adding a star to my original review, as thanks to Louise for being open and honest about the growing pains of taking on this contract.

May 19th Update:

Removing a star once more, as I have not been able to go 1 month without some problem with our pick ups.

Since my last update, Recycling Alternative has not followed proper pick up procedure, leading to their technicians begging residents to let them into the building and leaving the site improperly locked. I have had to email with them every month since February.

It has since culminated in yet more confusion over pick ups at our site (despite step by step instructions, complete with photos) and another missed pickup (over a long weekend) with placating phrases like "I asked this to be prioritized on Thursday"

Our regular pick up day is Thursday. Why are they asking it to be prioritized?

And why are they not keeping track of missed pick ups?

Best to note that if you missed a pick up, it will be your responsibility to follow up on it, because Recycling Alternative does not seem to monitor these things at all.

May 25th update:

After not making our "delayed due to the long weekend" scheduled pickup last week, we received our pick up on Saturday.

On Monday, it was discovered that they once more did not follow proper pick up procedure, that has been explain multiple times, replete with photograph instructions.

They once more did not access the building using their twice provided fob. It is unclear if they still have it. And they left one of our locks unlocked.

We have been communicating with Recycling Alternatives about this specific issue since May 11th.

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By Frances Skulj on May 23, 2026 Verified by Google Recycling Alternative

Editing again to add over 2 months later: Already happening again. We have missed 3 weeks worth of pick ups. Our strata manager emailed and we were told it would be picked up at the end of the week. Today is Friday and it was not picked up.

Been over 3 weeks since our recycling has been picked up. Our strata has reached out multiple times and hasn’t received a single reply. All necessary keys and information were given prior to the switch over so there is no excuse.

Edited to add: finally after over 3 weeks our bins have been picked up. I can give grace to 2 weeks, especially if there’s communication. We received neither.

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By Kyle Bryan on March 24, 2026 Verified by Google Recycling Alternative

Completely fumbling new City of Vancouver recycling contract. Our building has been missed 3 of 4 weeks since taking over. Other buildings managed by our strata management company have also been missed/ignored. Style of trucks (rented cub van?) and drivers appear inefficient compared to previous Waste Management staff/equipment. Better figure this out quick!

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