Big Changes to Ottawa’s Recycling Program as Ontario Takes Over

New rules for the blue and black box program mean you’ll be able to recycle more than ever before in Ottawa. On January 1, the list of items that can be recycled in Ottawa grew as responsibility for collecting and regulating recycling transferred from the City to the Province. 

Among the additional recyclable materials are:

• ·      hot and cold beverage containers

• ·      ice cream tubs

• deodorant and toothpaste tubes

• ·      frozen juice containers

• ·      black plastic containers

• ·      plastic packaging such as chip bags, bubble wrap and plastic bags

• ·      foam packaging such as meat trays and takeout containers

See https://www.circularmaterials.ca/recycleontario/   for a complete list and instructions on how to prepare the materials for your bins

 

 

Curbside collection won’t look much different.  Continue to use your existing standard sized blue and black bins. Put your bins out by 7 am on your collection day. Blue and black bins will be collected on alternate weeks on the day you currently have assigned.  One change will be the collection truck.  It will look different and may collect at a different time of day than usual.

If you live in a multi-res­id­en­tial build­ing that is already served by the City of Ott­awa recyc­ling pro­gram, your building is included in the new system.  But if you live in a multi-res­id­en­t build­ing that has private recyc­ling, you will not change to the new system; what you can recycle will not change until 2031.

 

The government of Ontario transferred recycling responsibility to Circular Materials, a national not-for-profit. Its board of directors includes members from major food, beverage, and consumer products manufactures, restaurants, and retailers.  (See https://www.circularmaterials.ca/board/).  Circular Materials contracts with Miller Waste for recycling collection in Ottawa.

The City will continue to collect garbage, green bins, and leaf and yard waste. You can continue to contact the City for garbage and organic waste collection services, such as a missed collection.

Who to contact:

For questions or issues related to:

• Recycling bins

• Missed collections

• What you can recycle

 Contact Miller Waste at 1-888-852-2374 or area2@millerwaste.ca

For any other recycling related questions, contact Circular Materials at customerservice@circularmaterials.ca or 1-877-667-2626.