This article outlines the position and trends of

recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. This concept often includes the recovery of energy from waste materials. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the propert ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Since the 1980s, most mid to large

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in most provinces have

programs, relying on curbside collection with either bins, boxes, or bags. These systems are not standardized, and the specific process differs for each province. Certain provinces have container-deposit systems in place for bottles, cans, and other beverage containers. As of 2012, Canada has a recycling rate around 26.8%.

History

In 1981 Resource Integration Systems (RIS) in collaboration with Laidlaw International tested the first blue box recycling system on 1500 homes in

Kitchener, Ontario Kitchener is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about west of Toronto. It is one of three cities that make up the Regional Municipality of Waterloo and is the regional Administrative centre, seat. Kitchener was known as Berlin until a ...

. Due to the success of the project the City of Kitchener put out a contract for public bid in 1984 for a recycling system citywide. Laidlaw won the bid and continued with the popular blue box recycling system. Today hundreds of cities around the world use the blue box system or a similar variation.

By province

Container-deposit legislation in US and Canadian states

Municipalities and

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

s with recycling programs: *

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

– Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Northumberland County, Durham, York, Niagara, Halton, Peel Regions, Woodstock, Thunder Bay, Brantford, Waterloo *

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

– Montreal, Quebec City, Laval *

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

– Metro Vancouver Region, Victoria *

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

– seven different regions: Cape Breton, Pictou-Antigonish-Guysborough, East Hants-Cumberland-Colchester, Halifax Regional Municipality, Annapolis-Kings, South Shore-West Hants, Yarmouth Digby *

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

– Moose Jaw, Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert *

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

– Edmonton, Calgary, Medicine Hat, Fort McMurray, Canmore *

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

– Winnipeg *

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...

– St. John's

Alberta

, the Alberta Recycling Management Authority (also known as "Alberta Recycling") is an arms-length body set up by the Government of Alberta under the Ministry of the Environment to coordinate recycling in the province. It administers the surcharge that has been added to the price of

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...

, and

tires A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide traction on the surface over w ...

sold in the province since 2005 to pay for the recycling of those products in Alberta, and it helps to administer the province's household hazardous waste disposal program. A separate management authority, the Beverage Container Management Board (BCMB), is responsible for recycling of

beverage A drink or beverage is a liquid intended for human consumption. In addition to their basic function of satisfying thirst, drinks play important roles in human culture. Common types of drinks include plain drinking water, milk, juice, smoothie ...

containers. Beverage container recycling regulations were first introduced province-wide in 1972, but the BCMB was created in 1997 to create a provincial oversight body for the industry. The BCMB oversees two non-profit corporations which process the materials, the Alberta Beer Container Corporation (ABCC) for standard-sized beer bottles (which reuses rather than recycles the bottles) and the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC) for all other beverage containers. Containers are actually collected at privately owned, for-profit bottle depots. there are over 200 such bottle depots in Alberta, which are members of the Alberta Bottle Depot Association. The Recycling Council of Alberta is a registered charity which has promoted recycling in Alberta since 1987. Specific industry groups lobby for their niche within the recycling sector, such as the Alberta Plastics Recycling Association. Curbside recycling of newsprint, cardboard, plastic packaging, and other non-food household wastes is the responsibility of the individual municipalities of Alberta. Most of Alberta's most populous municipalities have

blue box A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voi ...

, blue bag, or blue bin recycling container programs. The two largest municipalities, however, adopted waste-diverting policies at a very different pace.

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

began a pilot project in curbside recycling for single-family houses in 1986 and adopted it citywide in 1988, expanding over the years to include more items ( Christmas trees in 1990, and

construction waste Construction waste or debris is any kind of debris from the construction process. Different government agencies have clear definitions. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency EPA defines construction and demolition mate ...

in 2008), and higher levels of processing including large-scale composting and capturing

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

to produce energy. In addition, the scope of collection has expanded to include multifamily buildings in 2001 and businesses in 2010. It is expected that when the waste-to-biofuel plant is completed in 2012, Edmonton will divert 90% of its waste from

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

s. By contrast

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

conducted a pilot project on curbside recycling in 1991 and then abandoned curbside collection for a drop-off system until a second pilot program in 2004, and currently collects recyclates only at private houses, with no plans to introduce collection at condo and apartment buildings before 2015.

started their curbside recycling program in 1988. In 2021, Edmonton transitioned from a bag to cart system for garbage and food waste collection. On September 10, 2020, the Edmonton city council approved a 25-year waste strategy to reduce the landfill waste by 90%. The city is also transitioning into a new cart system rather from the blue bag system to dispose of waste.

Recycling Rate

Canada has an extremely high rate of

plastic waste Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...

of 3 million tonnes per year. Out of all the material that Canadians dispose of in the recycling bin, 12% is exported to other countries, such as Malaysia, where it is processed and damages the environment and the health of the population. Of the remaining 88%, 86% goes to the landfill, 9% is recycled, and the rest is burned for energy. According to a 2019 study, only 9 percent of waste in Canada goes to recycling. As of 2019, British Columbia has the highest recycling rate, at 69 percent. In Ontario, the recycling rate has declined from 60.2% in 2018 to 57.3% in 2019.

Collection processes

The curbside collection systems for recyclates vary across

: *

Blue box A blue box is an Electronics, electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voi ...

–

(excluding Toronto),

and

* Wheeled Blue bin –

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Essex-Windsor, Winnipeg * Green box – used in

North York North York is a former township and city and is now one of the six administrative districts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the northern area of Toronto, centred around Yonge Street, north of Ontario Highway 401. It is bounded by ...

* Green bin –

York Region The Regional Municipality of York, also called York Region, is a regional municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, between Lake Simcoe and Toronto. The region was established after the passing of then Bill 102, An Act to Establish The Regional ...

, Peel Region,

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Halifax Regional Municipality Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

, Durham Region, Barrie, Ontario,

* Grey box – paper and paperboard – North York, Ontario, Barrie, Ontario * Compost and waste bins and blue bags for recycling in

, Alberta * Blue bag used in

St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador St. John's is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. The city spans and is the easternmost city in North Ame ...

Materials collected

The different types of recyclable materials collected include: *

Newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...

s, including paper flyers *Office

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, Textile, rags, poaceae, grasses, Feces#Other uses, herbivore dung, or other vegetable sources in water. Once the water is dra ...

and letter mail *

Envelope An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter (message), letter or Greeting card, card. Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one o ...

s (without bubble wrap inside) *

Glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...

jars and bottles *Metal cans –

and soup cans *

Book A book is a structured presentation of recorded information, primarily verbal and graphical, through a medium. Originally physical, electronic books and audiobooks are now existent. Physical books are objects that contain printed material, ...

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

s, telephone books *

Plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

s – Type 1 PETE and 2 HDPE and 4 LDPE * Compostable materials (excluding grease) *

Toy A toy or plaything is an object that is used primarily to provide entertainment. Simple examples include toy blocks, board games, and dolls. Toys are often designed for use by children, although many are designed specifically for adults and p ...

s and

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

– for re-sale or re-use *

Motor oil Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, deterge ...

Tire A tire (North American English) or tyre (Commonwealth English) is a ring-shaped component that surrounds a Rim (wheel), wheel's rim to transfer a vehicle's load from the axle through the wheel to the ground and to provide Traction (engineeri ...

s – some re-treaded, some mixed with asphalt for road resurfacing; re-used in playgrounds; pylons used for construction and road work crews * Beer bottles through deposit systems (Beer Store program in Ontario) *Liquor bottles through deposit systems * Pop cans and bottles through deposit systems (especially Quebec) *

Ink cartridge An ink cartridge or inkjet cartridge is a component of an inkjet printer that contains ink to be deposited onto paper during printing. It consists of one or more ink reservoirs and can include Inkjet printer#Underlying business model, electronic ...

s *

Cell phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

and most batteries (including automotive) * Fluorescent lamp recycling *

Styrofoam Styrofoam is a brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), manufactured to provide continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and as a water barrier. This material is light blue in ...

within Nova Scotia in most regions * Clothing – some sold for re-use, re-purposed locally or shipped overseas

References

External links

''Performance Measurement and Reporting for Extended Producer Responsibility Programs''Recycling Council of British ColumbiaRecycling Council of AlbertaRecycling Council of Ontario
;News {{DEFAULTSORT:Recycling In Canada