Item - 2026.IE27.5

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee:

1. Requested the General Manager, Transportation Services, to coordinate with Circular Materials to ensure that uncollected recycling bins do not interfere with prompt sidewalk snow clearing during adverse weather.

2. Requested the General Manager, Service Excellence, and the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, to publish monthly ward dashboards of recycling-related complaints received by the city, including 311 volumes, complaint types, missed-collection maps, and of impacts on city solid waste costs, such as tonnage shifts, contamination trends, for the rest of 2026.

3. Requested the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, to continue to monitor the waste stream and to report back, in the forthcoming report to Infrastructure and Environment Committee, in the in the second quarter of 2026 on any increase in the volume of collection in the garbage stream and if there has been an increase of recyclable materials in that stream.

The General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, gave a presentation on Transition of the Blue Box Program to Extended Producer Responsibility - Preliminary Post-Transition Implementation Update.

The purpose of this report is to respond to the direction received from City Council in November 2025 and from the Infrastructure and Environment Committee in December 2025 to provide a preliminary update on the post-transition implementation of the Blue Box Program's transition to Extended Producer Responsibility in January 2026.

I am writing to request your support to have Solid Waste Management Services provide public updates related to the delivery of recycling services in Toronto to ensure transparency and accountability.

As you know, on January 1st the final stage of Premier Ford’s province-wide recycling privatization plan came into effect. The Province removed the City of Toronto from delivering the service and the responsibility for all residential recycling collection in Ontario was given to Circular Materials.

When the first collection under this new model was scheduled to take place on January 2nd, entire streets, buildings, and even neighbourhoods were missed and recycling bins were left out for days without any clear communications about when residents could expect pick-up. Issues have persisted with reports from across the City of more missed collections and a lack of accountability in addressing these systemic failures.

Waste and recycling collection is a basic service that must be reliable, well-run, and accountable. City Council requires clear, timely information about service levels, compliance, and diversion outcomes in Toronto in order to determine appropriate next steps, including potential advocacy to the Province and regulator.

This motion requests that the General Manager of Solid Waste Management provide certain regular updates to Committee and Council that will enable us to advocate for Toronto’s residents and get them the quality recycling services that they deserve.