Since January 1, 2026, the City of Toronto no longer collects residential blue bin recycling. A producer-funded organization called Circular Materials does, and it is the one to call about a missed pickup or a broken bin. Your sorting rules and your bin stay the same, but the phone number changed.
What changed on January 1, 2026
The City announced the handover on December 4, 2025. From the start of the new year, Circular Materials took over residential recycling collection and the services that go with it, including missed collections and bin repair or replacement. Toronto crews stopped picking up the blue bin at the curb.
The City still runs garbage collection, green bin organics and yard waste. It also collects recycling in public areas. Those services were not part of the change, and they still go through 311.
So the tax bill for garbage did not disappear, and the solid waste bin fees did not move to a private company. What moved is one specific job: driving down your street on recycling day and emptying the blue bin.
The provincial rule behind it
This was not a Toronto idea. In 2021 the Province of Ontario finalized a regulation that moves the Blue Box program to full Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR. Under EPR, the companies that put paper, packaging and packaging-like products on the Ontario market become responsible for what happens to them afterward. The cost of collecting and processing moves from municipalities to those producers.
Toronto’s own program moved to this model in stages. The City’s recycling page says the Blue Bin program transitioned to EPR as of July 1, 2023, and that collection responsibility ended on January 1, 2026. Every Ontario municipality in the program follows a timeline set by the regulation, so neighbouring cities went through the same change.
The City lists several expected benefits. The list of accepted materials becomes the same across the province from 2026. Recovery targets come into effect from 2026 onward, which could raise the share of material kept out of landfill. And producers may have a reason to cut or redesign packaging, since they now pay for it to be recycled.
Whether those benefits arrive is something to watch, not something to assume. The City’s own reports describe them as potential, and this article treats them the same way.
The split between City and provider
A quick split makes the picture clear.
Circular Materials handles curbside recycling from homes. It also handles the calls when that service fails: missed collection, damaged bin, a bin that needs replacing. It works through a contracted collector, so the truck that comes down your street may not carry the Circular Materials name.
The City of Toronto handles everything else in waste, and it also keeps some recycling customers. Under the City’s page, the City is still responsible for recycling from commercial customers, City divisions and agencies, charities, institutions and religious organizations, and permitted street events. If you run a small shop or a place of worship on a Toronto route, your recycling arrangement was not changed by the January handover.
The City also keeps some ownership. A staff report to Council described the City as continuing to own and maintain blue box infrastructure while producers take over collection operations. That report is dense, and if you need the detail of who owns a particular bin, ask Circular Materials directly.
The curb routine you keep
Your blue bin is still the blue bin. According to the announcement, the bins remain in use and no equipment change was needed. You put the bin out on your usual day, and the collection schedule did not change because of the transfer.
Materials accepted did change a little. The City’s recycling page says that from January 1, 2026 there are changes to what is accepted, and it sends residents to the Circular Materials website for the current list. The release calls them a few new additions. Current items listed on the page include:
- glass bottles and jars
- rigid plastics such as food containers and beverage bottles
- flexible plastic packaging such as grocery bags and milk bags
- metal cans and foil
- paper, cardboard and paper containers
- foam polystyrene
That list is a starting point. Because the provincial list is being standardized, check the Circular Materials site before a big clean-out, especially for anything unusual.
Calling about a missed pickup
Since the handover, the number for residential recycling problems is 1-888-921-2686. The website is circularmaterials.ca/toronto. The City is clear that requests for missed collection, bin repair and bin replacement go there.
Here is what a sensible sequence looks like after a missed pickup.
- Leave the bin out and check that it was set at the curb on time, with the lid closed and clear space around it.
- Look at the Circular Materials website for any service notice for your area.
- Call 1-888-921-2686 or use the website form, and give your address and pickup day.
- Write down the date, the time and any reference number you get.
- Bring it back to the garage only after the company tells you what to do.
If you call 311 about your household blue bin, expect to be redirected. That is by design, not a sign that your request was ignored. And 311 is still the right number for garbage, green bin and yard waste problems.
Does this lower your property tax
It’s a fair question, and the honest answer is that it cannot be measured from public numbers. The City’s news release on the handover says nothing about property tax.
Here is what the official numbers do say. Toronto’s 2026 budget was adopted on February 10, 2026. The residential property tax increase is 0.7% plus a 1.5% City Building Fund levy, about 2.2% combined. On an average assessed home of $692,140, that comes to about $91.53 a year.
The 2026 Solid Waste Management Services budget notes mention some effects of the transition. Savings came from using staff and equipment previously tied to blue bin haulage for organics. It also reports about $5.7 million in efficiency gains across the whole division, and savings of roughly $2 million a year from a renegotiated contract with a bin supplier. It also says 42 new litter-removal positions added in 2025 offset the loss of full-time blue bin positions, and that 10 new positions were added in 2026, including a customer care team for the post-transition period.
So the City did adjust its solid waste budget around the change. What nobody has published, at least on the official pages we could open, is a line saying that blue box savings reduced your bill by a set amount. Treat any claim of a specific dollar saving per household with suspicion.
The tax figure in dollars
Take the average home in the City’s release, assessed at $692,140. The combined 2026 increase is about $91.53 a year. That is roughly $7.63 a month, or about 25 cents a day.
Now compare two households. One owns a home assessed at $692,140 and pays about $91.53 more. Another owns a home assessed at twice that value, $1,384,280. The increase scales with assessed value, so the second household would see about double, roughly $183. Neither figure has a separate recycling line on it, because the handover changed who does the work, not how the bill is itemized.
If you want your own numbers, the property tax calculator works from your assessment. And for budgeting other city costs, the Toronto water bill calculator shows how the 2026 water and solid waste fees stack on top.
The yearly bin fee
Toronto homeowners pay a yearly solid waste fee based on the size of the garbage bin. For 2026 the fees are $317.85 for a small bin, $385.86 for medium, $524.06 for large, $607.86 for extra-large, and $203.50 if you use bags only. That fee is separate from recycling, and it was not cancelled when the blue bin service moved.
The reason is simple. The fee pays for the services the City still runs, and recycling collection was not billed to you as its own line in the first place. Under EPR, producers fund recycling, which is why nothing extra shows up for it either way.
A household on a medium bin pays $385.86 a year. If you cut your garbage by recycling and composting well, the sensible move is to see whether a smaller bin size fits. The fee difference between a medium and a small bin is $68.01 a year ($385.86 minus $317.85).
Producer funding in practice
Under the old system, Toronto residents paid for recycling through property taxes and the City ran the trucks. Under EPR, the money comes from the companies that sell packaged goods in Ontario. They pay into the system, and Circular Materials, a not-for-profit set up by producers, runs collection on their behalf.
That has one clear effect on you as a resident. The cost of moving your cardboard and bottles from the curb to a sorting plant is no longer a municipal expense. Producers may recover it through the prices they charge, but nothing is billed to you as a separate recycling charge, and nothing on the City’s pages says one exists.
It also changes who is accountable. Before 2026, a complaint about service went to your City councillor and the City’s Solid Waste Management Services division. Now the first stop is the company running the collection, and the City’s role is closer to that of an interested party. The City does say it works with Circular Materials and its contracted collector on the transition and on telling residents about the change.
The provincial regulation sets recovery targets that start applying from 2026 onward, according to the City’s summary of the program. Those targets are the producers’ obligation, not yours, so your part stays the same: sort well and keep the wrong things out of the bin.
If you live in an apartment or a multi-unit building
The City page on the change is written for houses, and the news release talks about curbside blue bins. Many apartment and condo buildings arrange their recycling differently, through the property manager or a private contract, and the official pages we opened do not say how the January handover applies to them.
If you live in such a building, ask your property manager or condo board who now services the recycling and who handles complaints. Do not assume the answer from the house rules. And if you own a small rental house with a few units on curbside service, the house instructions above apply to you as they do to any other house. See also the Land Transfer Tax calculator, and the full set of real estate calculators.
Sources
- City of Toronto news release, Blue Bins no longer City-run
- City of Toronto, Toronto’s Recycling Program
- City of Toronto, 2026 Budget Notes, Solid Waste Management Services
- City of Toronto staff report, Transition of the Blue Box Program to Extended Producer Responsibility
Common questions
Who do I call about a missed blue bin pickup?
Does the City still collect garbage and green bins?
Did my property tax go down because of the change?
Are businesses and charities affected?
Last reviewed: . Figures come from the official sources listed above. How we check the numbers and our editorial policy.