In less than six months, Toronto’s world-class Blue Box program will be fully privatized and the city will no longer manage residential recycling.
The transformative shift is the result of provincial legislation making companies that produce blue bin materials responsible for the full cost and administration of recycling, stepping into a role that the city has overseen for more than four decades.
Circular Materials, a non-profit founded to handle recycling on behalf of many big-name brands, will take over Toronto’s recycling, a changeover the city is helping with.
Circular Materials says the Blue Box program in Ontario will be the most expensive in the country and will allow new items to be recycled while a private contractor takes over collection citywide.
“The goal is to keep (the transition) as seamless as possible for the residents,” said Charlotte Ueta, acting director of policy, planning and outreach for Toronto Solid Waste Management Services.
“Historically speaking, Toronto residents have been very accustomed to receiving services from the City of Toronto,” said Ueta. “Now, to have another player come into the system I’d say is a pretty transformative change.”
The privatization will result in some changes to how Toronto’s recycling is handled.
As of January next year, the city will no longer manage the replacement or repair of blue bins, a responsibility that will fall to Circular Materials. The non-profit says it will launch a citywide communication campaign this fall on how to make blue bin repair and replacement requests, which means residents will no longer call 311.
Circular Materials didn’t say whether collection dates would change, but did say it will make every effort to inform residents ahead of schedule changes.
“Our goal is to ensure a seamless transition for Torontonians, with residents experiencing minimal impact to their Blue Box recycling routines at curbside,” according to an email from Allen Langdon, CEO of Circular Materials. “If there are any changes to the pickup and collection schedules, the Circular Materials team will work closely with the City of Toronto to ensure residents are aware and informed well in advance of Jan. 1, 2026.”
Homeowners will also be able to recycle more household materials than before, including toothpaste tubes, deodorant sticks, frozen juice cans, ice cream tubs and black plastic takeout containers.
Homeowners in the city’s east end were told in May to leave their bins out so that workers could cover the city’s logo with a sticker that reads “Ready, Repeat, Recycle,” with a toll-free number listed below with the name Circular Materials. The stickers will be rolled out to residents throughout the remainder of the year.
In January, trucks picking up residential recycling will also have a new look with GFL Environmental, which has been collecting residential garbage on behalf of the city west of Yonge St. for a number of years, now under contract with Circular Materials to pick up recycling citywide.
The shift to privatization is called “Extended Producer Responsibility” or EPR.
EPR is meant to stimulate innovation by making the companies — known as producers — that create and use packaging fully responsible for the cost and administration of recycling, a cost that used to be shared with municipalities. The idea behind EPR is that it will incentivize companies to use more recyclable packaging.
Toronto was one of the first municipalities to transition to EPR in July of 2023, although the city has continued to provide and manage recycling collection, a role that will end as of Jan. 1 next year, when Ontario’s producer responsibility framework will be in place across the province.
But with the rollout not even complete, EPR is already facing criticism after requests by organizations like Circular Materials, which is called a Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), to pull back on provincial plans to expand recycling because of ballooning costs.
Circular Materials is one of four PROs in the province that manage recycling on behalf of producers. It is also the overall administrator for recycling provincewide.
In June, the province released draft proposals to the extended producer responsibility legislation that would give producers another five years to hit stricter recovery targets for materials such as paper, rigid plastic, glass, metal and non-alcoholic beverage containers.
The draft proposal, if adopted, would also cancel plans to expand EPR to more multi-residential buildings, as well as some long-term care and retirement homes and schools, that don’t have blue box services or those paying private contractors for collection.
“If the amendments go through, they can mean that you may not be eligible to receive free recycling collection services,” said Ueta. “That is a concern for us in terms of equity and having access to the services provided by the producers.”
Circular Materials has said in past emails to the Star that the Blue Box program in Ontario is the most expensive in the country and that the multi-PRO system, which includes for-profit PROs, is driving up costs.
“In other jurisdictions in Canada, a single, not-for-profit PRO model results in a streamlined approach that supports efficiency and reduces costs,” said Langdon in an earlier email to the Star. “We are committed to working with the government to find solutions that create a more simplified and efficient Blue Box program that reduces the escalating costs for Ontario businesses and improves recycling rates for all Ontarians.”
The company has hired Faith Chipman, a former public servant and political staffer in the Ontario government, to lobby for the “development of a more efficient system for the management of blue box materials as Ontario fully transitions to Extended Producer Responsibility,” according to the Office of the Integrity Commissioner’s lobbyist registry.
Until the transition to EPR is implemented Jan. 1, Toronto will continue to manage collection services and residents can call 311 if they have a problem or a question about their recycling.
“If you’re used to seeing a City of Toronto vehicle come by to collect the recycling on a Tuesday, you’ll continue to see that City of Toronto vehicle until the end of this year,” said Ueta.
After the transition, the City of Toronto will still be responsible for collecting and managing recycling from commercial locations and city divisions, as well as agencies, charities, institutions and religious organizations.
And come January, the city will continue to offer support to Circular Materials.
”We are committed to working with them in 2026 and help address any issues that may come up,” said Ueta.
