TransLink has ordered the company in charge of the Canada Line to get its recycling program back on track after questions from CTV News.

The company – Protrans BC, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin – had bins throughout the public transit line telling riders to toss waste, bottles and cans in the same bag.

“Oh, that’s not right,” said Julio Cerama, a rider at Vancouver City Centre Station – one of several to do a double take when he noticed there was just a single bin. “Bottles should be there, garbage should be over there.”

And that situation doesn’t measure up to international standards, said rider Cian Boland, who was en route downtown after arriving from the airport.

“Seems a bit lax… That’s what I’m used to seeing every day," he said.

CTV News checked five stations to see only one bin that had an extra basket where cans and bottles could be put and separated from garbage.

SNC-Lavalin didn’t return calls, but TransLink ordered a “recycling audit” right away.

Most of the bins throughout the Canada Line don’t have a basket, said TransLink spokesperson Jill Drews.

“After your call, we checked and most of those baskets were missing,” she said. “We’ve confirmed what you have seen through an audit we did last night.”

A proper recycling program is a condition of the deal that SNC-Lavalin has to operate the system, though exactly how the company does it is up to them.

It’s likely that new bins will be purchased so that riders have a clear place to put recyclables, Drews said.

“We want to help customers be environmental stewards. We take that very seriously at TransLink, and we want to move as quickly as we can,” she said.

She encouraged riders to point out problems so that the service can be improved.

“It’s calls like this that help make change,” Drews said.

SNC-Lavalin is a Quebec company with some 50,000 employees worldwide. The company is charged with fraud and corruption relating to alleged bribery of Libyan officials.

Former Justice Minister and Vancouver-area MP Jody Wilson Raybould has resigned over allegations she was pressured by the prime minister’s office to allow the company to pay a fine through a deferred prosecution agreement rather than face a trial, which would result in SNC-Lavalin being unable to bid on federal contracts.

The company has said the charges are “without merit” and denied it lobbied the government inappropriately.