Under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act passed by the Province of Ontario in 2016, full responsibility for the collection, processing, and associated costs of recycling is shifted solely to the producers. This is referred to as Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Prior to this, municipalities were responsible for providing recycling services but only received roughly 50% of funding from stewards to cover the costs.
On June 3, 2021, the Province of Ontario finalized the regulation to transition Ontario's Blue Box Program to full Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR).
With EPR, the responsibility and cost of collecting and processing recycling (for designated materials and eligible sources) shifts from municipalities to the producers of paper products and packaging-like products.
Transition of municipal Blue Box Programs to EPR began on July 1, 2023, and will continue until December 31, 2025. As requested by City Council, Toronto's Blue Bin Program was one of the first municipalities to transition on July 1, 2023.
The City of Toronto will continue to provide recycling services (i.e., promotion and education, collection, transfer, and haulage) as a contractor under agreement with Circular Materials until the end of 2025.
There are no changes to the resident's collection days, services, or anything else during the EPR transition phase from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2025.
Frequently Asked Questions
Circular Materials is a national not-for-profit organization that supports producers in meeting their extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations and building efficient and effective recycling systems where materials are collected, recycled, and returned back to producers to use as recycled content in new packaging and paper. In 2026, the province of Ontario will transition to EPR where producers will be managing the collection and recycling of the blue box program.
As the administrator of Ontario’s common collection system, Circular Materials is responsible for operating the new system for blue box materials. Circular Materials is committed to increasing recycling rates across Ontario and ensuring more materials are looped into the circular economy, benefiting both people and the environment.
