Mark Thomson has whittled his garbage down over the past few years to the point where he takes out one small bag every two to three weeks.

But it wasn't always this way.

"A few years ago I was doing maybe a garbage can full a week. Like everybody else, you put your garbage can out once a week and it's usually pretty full," he said.

He wanted to change that, however, and in the process became the North Shore co-ordinator for a once-monthly recycling meet that allows residents to recycle a lot of what usually ends up in the trash, from Styrofoam to vinyl to potato chip bags.

Now, his Styrofoam gets turned into things like coolers, crown moulding for houses and even picture frames. Tetra packs get split apart into their components, with tin foil, paper and plastics recycled into new parts. Anything that can't possibly be recycled is sent to the waste-to-energy facility in Burnaby.

"If you use the blue-box system and this system and you compost, you can get it down to very, very little," he said.

It's catching on, too. Since forming in 2008 at Fromme elementary, where Thomson used to teach, they've now found a permanent location in the Presentation House Theatre parking lot on the third Saturday of every month.

As well, new groups have since sprung up in East Vancouver and Langley, and six times the number of people attend each month compared to two years ago.

Recycling is picked up by Pacific Mobile Depots, a recycling company that transports to recyclers. Their charge is passed on to customers and that translates to $7 for a large bag and $3.50 for a small bag.

Allan Lynch, manager of the North Shore Recycling Program, said NSRP has no plans to expand what's offered at the blue box to include those types of items.

"All of the low hanging fruit is already being collected. Anything that has any value is being collected now," he said. The other items, such as Styrofoam, will be collected by businesses, he said.

Already, shoppers can return any packaging they get at London Drugs to the store to be recycled. Other stores are expected to follow suit.

tholloway@nsnews.com