Ontario residents will soon be able to put more items into the blue bin, as the province’s new recycling collector is expanding the list of accepted materials.
On Tuesday, Circular Materials, the non-for-profit organization responsible for Ontario’s upcoming new recycling system, announced plans to expand the list of materials that can be recycled across the province.
The attempt to expand accepted materials began last summer, when the company launched a pilot program allowing people to put hot and cold paper-based and plastic-lined beverage cups in Toronto.
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Besides initial skepticism from local experts, the company says the pilot has been successful, with early results showing an eight per cent increase in collecting and recycling polycoated paperboard, which has been reused to make new paper products.
Now, after success with this first attempt, the company is looking to accept more items into the blue bin.
Starting next January, residents will be able to recycle more items, including:
- Coffee cups;
- Ice cream tubs;
- Deodorant;
- Toothpaste tubes;
- Black plastic containers;
- Frozen juice cups.
While the list of accepted materials currently varies according to different cities in the province, Circular Materials says it will soon introduce a unified material list, allowing all communities to recycle the same materials.
“Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Ontario residents will be able to recycle the same and even more materials no matter where they live across Ontario. This will make it easier for residents to recycle, improving recovery rates and benefitting both people and the environment,” Circular Materials CEO Allen Langdon said in a statement.
In Toronto, Circular Materials is set to take over recycling collection from the City of Toronto as early as Jan. 1, 2026, meaning the company will collect all recyclables from single-family homes, multi-residential buildings, schools and long-term care facilities.
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The set changes for the city’s Blue Bin program comes after a new regulation, introduced by the Ontario government, ordered a provincial transition from a Blue Box Program to full Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
This new program, which has been tested in multiple countries across the world, shifts responsibility over recycling to producers, requiring them to take care of collecting paper, packaging and other products they make.
Circular Materials is set to soon reveal more information to residents about the new recycling system over a new provincial campaign in the upcoming months.
