Some Toronto households skipped for blue bin collection following implementation of new private recycling rules

The CEO of Circular Materials says households in two districts of the city, including Leaside, did not receive recycling collection.

Some Toronto households are still waiting on their recycling to get picked up after a new private collection company missed their designated days earlier this month, a situation that at least one city councillor says is “infuriating.”

As of Jan. 1, the City of Toronto no longer holds responsibility for residential recycling as part of a new provincewide system.

Circular Materials, a Toronto-based non-profit organization that was founded by a group of food, beverage and consumer products manufacturers, restaurants and retailers, is now in charge of managing residential recycling around the province, including in Toronto, and Green For Life (GFL) has been contracted out to do recycling pickup in the city.

“We have connected with our service provider, GFL Environmental, who confirmed that a subset of households in Districts 2 and 3 within the City of Toronto did not receive recycling collection during their special post-holiday collection dates on January 2 and January 3, 2026,” Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon said in a statement to CTV News Toronto.

Langdon added that residents in those two districts, which include neighbourhoods east and west of Yonge St., received a postcard indicating when the special collection days would be following the holidays.

“Any household that did not receive a collection will be collected starting (Jan. 5) and during this week. Residents are asked to please leave their recycling out to support pickup,” he said.

Toronto-St. Paul’s Coun. Josh Matlow told CP24 that multiple residents have contacted him about the lack of recycling pickup.

“This is especially infuriating after the holiday season, when people have a lot of wrapping and packaging that they were hoping to have picked up, and residents are saying they pay taxes for basic services like recycling, and not only was it not done well, it wasn’t done at all, and they are hoping for accountability,” he said.

Matlow said he wants someone to look into why the recycling wasn’t picked up, and placed blame on Ontario Premier Doug Ford for “meddling” with a service that was working.

“I believe that services like recycling are basic city services that should be provided by local government,” he said.

“It (recycling collection) was working. It’s been working for a long time, and the moment that they effectively privatized this basic city service to Circular Materials... not only was the service not provided well, it wasn’t provided at all. I wish Doug Ford would focus on being Premier of Ontario, rather than continuously meddling in basic city services and frankly, messing it up.”

Speaking at an unrelated event on Monday, Ford said he open to hearing concerns about the new service, and isn’t above changing things if they “aren’t working.”

“The company that’s doing it... make no mistake, if it doesn’t work, we’ll change it,” Ford said. “That’s what we’re going to try, and if it doesn’t work out, we’ll change it. That’s with any program we do. We tweak it... if it’s not working, plain and simple, let’s make the changes.”

Matlow said he plans to ask the province, the mayor’s office and Circular Materials for “short term, immediate changes” to recycling pick-up in the city. In the longer term, he hopes the service can be returned to the city.

“I do believe that a service like this should be returned to the city, because ultimately, people need to know that when something doesn’t happen as well as they were expecting, that they know who to hold to account, and they can call their councillor or call 311, and get it corrected,” he explained.

“Right now, residents are left in the dark, and frankly, not only in the dark, but with a lot of recycling left at their curb.”

In an update to CP24 on Monday, Circular Materials said customers who were missed for collection last week have officially started to have their bins picked up. They say service will continue throughout the week and that GFL is prioritizing collection until all materials are picked up.