Changes to Toronto’s blue bin recycling collection operations to start in New Year
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
The City of Toronto has issued a reminder that, effective Jan. 1 of 2026, the municipal government will no longer be running residential recycling – blue bin – services.
Under new provincial legislation, the private company Circular Materials will be taking over recycling collection and related services for single-family homes, some multi-residential buildings, schools, long-term care facilities and retirement homes.
Changes to recycling collection services will not be applied to commercial customers, city divisions or agencies, charities, institutions, or religious organizations.
For residents across Toronto, blue bins will remain in use and there will be no changes to how residents recycle or collection schedules, apart from some new additions to materials that can be recycled.
The city is urging residents to continue participating in the recycling program “regardless of who manages the program.”
The noteworthy change to the blue bin program is that now, rather than calling the city, residents will need to contact Circular Materials at 1-888-921-2686, or online at https://www.circularmaterials.ca/resident-communities/toronto/ for requests and inquiries related to any recycling services, missed collections and bin repairs or replacements.
These changes are only being applied to the recycling (blue bin) program, not the city’s other waste diversion programs such as green bin organics and yard waste collection, and garbage (black bin) collection.
Provincial regulation to transition to a privatized recycling collection structure is part of the Ontario Environment Plan, which was finalized in 2021 and saw its implementation rolled out between 2023 and 2025.
The transition set out with several goals, including making product manufacturers “financially and operationally” responsible for “managing the life-cycle of their products,” and alleviating the financial burden of waste management on municipalities.
Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher said she pushed a motion at the city’s recent Infrastructure and Environment Committee meeting calling on Toronto’s MPPs to provide a “comprehensive communications plan” for residents as the city makes the transition.
“I moved a motion to have the city provide all Toronto MPP’s its communication materials to ensure their constituency teams are able to support residents with questions and issues regarding recycling collection and for Solid Waste Management staff to report back on the transition,” said Fletcher in her newsletter.
For more information, please visit https://www.ontario.ca/page/made-in-ontario-environment-plan
