Toronto’s privatized recycling program faces delays, leaving North York residents with uncollected bins as Circular Materials and Green For Life manage the transition.
Toronto’s Recycling Program Faces Challenges
Nine days into the new year, Toronto’s privatized recycling program is struggling. Overflowing blue bins in several North York neighborhoods are still waiting to be picked up.
As of January 1, Circular Materials, a national non-profit, has taken over the recycling program from municipalities. This change follows an order from the Ford government for material producers to lead in item collection. Green For Life is responsible for the actual curbside collections.
“GFL is a well-known company that has a good track record, so I’m very surprised, but I think their resources are spread too thin,” said Coun. James Pasternak. “At the same time, we have a problem of accountability. We have a private company, we have two levels of government, and it sits somewhere in between. So who’s accountable?”
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow also shared her frustration with the new recycling collection program.
“We warned the government and Circular Materials that it’s not going to be an easy transition,” she said on Friday. “As you know, the provincial government took all recycling services away from the City of Toronto, so any recycling, the blue bins, is no longer run by the city – we absolutely have no control over it.”
Viewers who contacted CityNews over the past week expressed their concerns. They want their recycling picked up, regardless of who is responsible.
“With the new company coming in just around the holidays, that’s exactly when we have so much waste, it was insane to deal with,” said one affected resident. “You would have thought that they would have been on the ball from the start, and they weren’t.”
“This garbage has been sitting here for days and days and days, and people live here, this is our home,” said another resident in the St. Clair and Bathurst area. “This should have been picked up a long time ago, so I don’t know what is going on. I don’t know why we changed what was happening with the garbage and recycling, but when you change something, it should be better, not worse, and this is clearly worse.”
In a statement to CityNews, Circular Materials says its teams are working around the clock to pick up all remaining recycling.
While Premier Doug Ford is urging patience as the new program rolls out, he indicated earlier this week he would be willing to make further changes if the company’s service does not improve.
Summary of Key Facts
| Date | Event | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 | Circular Materials takes over recycling program | Circular Materials |
| January 1 | Curbside collections handled by Green For Life | Green For Life |
| January 6 | Residents report overflowing blue bins | Residents |
| January 6 | Mayor Olivia Chow expresses frustration | Olivia Chow |
| January 6 | Circular Materials states teams are working to resolve issues | Circular Materials |
