Toronto did not add a 12% surcharge for high-density buildings in 2026. We found no “High-Density Waste Collection Premium” on any City page. What did change is that the City raised solid waste rates by 3.75% on January 1, 2026, and that increase applies to buildings with multi-residential garbage collection, which includes most condos and apartment towers.
So if your condo fees are going up, the City’s garbage charge is a small part of it. This article shows what the City charges a building, works through a full example in dollars, and explains where to look when your board says waste costs are rising.
What changed on January 1, 2026
The City approved interim 2026 rates for Toronto Water and Solid Waste Management Services. For solid waste, the increase is 3.75%. The City calls the rates interim because they are finalized through the 2026 operating and capital budget, which Council adopted on February 10, 2026.
For houses, the increase shows up as new bin fees. The annual charge is $317.85 for a small bin, $385.86 for a medium, $524.06 for a large and $607.86 for an extra-large, up by $11.49, $13.95, $18.94 and $21.97. Those numbers tell you the shape of the change. A 3.75% rise on a $306.36 small bin fee is $11.49, which matches.
Buildings with front-end containers or curbside collection got the same 3.75% rise, according to the City. There’s no separate premium on top for tall buildings.
What the City charges a building
Multi-residential buildings pay per unit, per year, and the amount depends on how the building’s garbage is set up. The City posts these 2026 figures for un-compacted and compacted garbage.
- Base rate: $260.98 per unit per year
- Rebate: $185.00 per unit per year
- Net rate: $75.98 per unit per year
- Excess garbage: $18.11 per cubic yard un-compacted, $36.23 per cubic yard compacted
The base fee covers collection of organics, electronics, yard waste and household hazardous waste as well as garbage. A building that puts out more garbage than its base volume pays the excess charge on every additional cubic yard.
Some extras sit outside the base. Garbage tags for extra bagged waste cost $6.81 each. The oversized items fee is $23.23 per unit per year. A 95-gallon garbage bin costs $132.85 to buy, and a 35-gallon green bin costs $85.98.
A 287-unit building, worked out
The old article used a 287-unit tower as its example, so we’ll use the same size with the City’s real rates. Take the un-compacted setup.
The base charge is 287 times $260.98, which is $74,901.26. The rebate is 287 times $185.00, or $53,095.00. That leaves a net of $21,806.26 a year. Spread over 287 units that is $75.98 per unit, about $6.33 a month.
Now the oversized items fee. At $23.23 per unit, the building owes $6,667.01 a year. Add it to the net and the fixed charges come to $28,473.27. Divide by 287 and each unit’s share of those charges is $99.21 a year, or roughly $8.27 a month.
Excess garbage is the swing factor. If the building went 500 cubic yards over its base volume in a year, the excess would be $9,055.00 un-compacted at $18.11. With compacted garbage at $36.23 a cubic yard, the same 500 would cost $18,115.00. Whether a building is close to or far over its base volume is a matter for the building’s own numbers and its bills.
Testing the 12% claim against the numbers
The earlier article said a building paying about $15,000 a month in waste fees would see $1,800 added by a 12% surcharge. That’s a real calculation, but the $15,000 doesn’t fit the City’s schedule. A 287-unit building’s fixed charges on the posted rates are under $2,400 a month, even with the oversized fee, before any excess.
For a building to reach $15,000 a month it would need $180,000 a year in waste fees. That’s about $627 per unit a year. It’s possible only with very large excess volumes, and we have no evidence that’s typical.
Now compare what a real 3.75% increase does. On a fee of $15,000 a month it would be $562.50 a month, or $6,750 a year. A 12% surcharge would have been $1,800 a month, or $21,600 a year. So if you saw a bigger jump than 3.75% in a waste line, something else may have changed, such as volume, service or how the bill is split.
What 3.75% means per unit
Take the net charge of $21,806.26 for our example building. If it rose 3.75%, that’s $817.73 more for the year across the whole building. Divided by 287 units, it’s about $2.85 per unit per year. It’s under 25 cents a month.
That’s an illustration, because the City may apply the increase to the base and the rebate separately, and we haven’t seen the 2025 amounts side by side. It still shows the scale. The City’s garbage fee is a low-cost line on a condo budget.
So where does a big increase come from? The City doesn’t say, and we don’t know your building. Common candidates in condo budgets are insurance, utilities, staffing and contributions to the reserve fund. Your board’s budget package should show each line against last year’s.
Recycling changed too
One more change in 2026 affects apartments and condos. The City says that starting January 1, 2026 it no longer manages residential recycling, under new provincial legislation. According to the City, the savings were reinvested in other waste programs.
The City page doesn’t spell out how this affects a building’s costs, and we haven’t seen a City statement that it reduced multi-residential fees by a set amount. If your board mentions blue box changes, ask them to show the difference in the budget.
How the charge reaches your maintenance fee
You don’t get a City garbage bill for a condo unit. The building pays the City, and the condo corporation covers the cost as part of common expenses. Owners then pay their share through monthly fees, usually in proportion to what the corporation’s documents set.
In the example above, if your unit was one of 287 equal shares, your slice of the $28,473.27 fixed charges would be $99.21 a year. Your unit’s real share may be larger or smaller. Look at the declaration or the budget for your percentage.
Renters usually don’t see the line at all. A landlord may recover costs through rent, but Ontario’s rent increase guideline for 2026 is 2.1%, and it caps regular increases for covered units. Units first occupied after November 15, 2018 are exempt from that guideline. Nothing in the City’s fee schedule is a separate charge to tenants.
Questions for your condo board
If you get a notice blaming a City waste premium, ask for the document behind it. The notice should name the City bylaw or bill, the amount and the period.
Ask how much of the maintenance fee change is waste, and what the waste line was last year. Ask whether the building has excess volume charges, and if so how many cubic yards and at what rate. Compaction or sorting changes might cut the excess, so find out if anyone has tested them. And ask when the board last reviewed the oversized item and garbage tag charges, which can add up.
These are ordinary budget questions, and a board should answer them from its records. If a figure doesn’t match the City’s published rates above, ask for the source.
Putting waste next to other City charges
Garbage is one City charge among several. Water and wastewater in 2026 cost $4.8629 per cubic metre if you pay on time and $5.1188 if late. An average household using 230 cubic metres a year pays about $1,118. The Toronto water bill calculator works out a bill from your own usage.
Property tax is bigger still. The City’s 2026 increase for residential owners is about 2.2%, or $91.53 for a home assessed at $692,140. Owners of a condo unit pay their own property tax bill, separate from the corporation’s waste charges. The property tax calculator shows the full year for your assessment.
To see how a change in fees fits your total spending, the budget calculator lets you add the monthly increase to your other costs.
How to check a City fee yourself
Start on toronto.ca with the page for fees, set-out and bins for buildings, which lists the current rates. For anything specific to your building’s account, call 311.
Note that the 2026 rates were interim before the budget was adopted. The page we used listed the numbers above, but if you are reading this later, check the current page in case a rate has changed. For your own numbers, try the Toronto Cost of Living calculator, or browse the real estate calculators.
Sources
- City of Toronto, Fees, set out and bins for buildings
- City of Toronto, 2026 interim rates and fees for Toronto Water and Solid Waste
- City of Toronto, Solid waste rates and fees
- City of Toronto, 2026 Budget now final
Common questions
Is there a 12% waste surcharge for Toronto condos?
Last reviewed: . Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.