3w ago

A busy transition coming for City of Kingston's garbage and recycling collection services

Big changes are coming. To summarize the main points:

The city is switching to standardized bins for garbage and compost that can be lifted and dumped onto trucks mechanically.
This will be phased in over the next several years starting in the suburbs.
120L bins will be standard issue: one for garbage and one for compost.
You can upgrade to a 240L bin if you need one, but it costs $120 initially + $196/year. The initial fee will be waived if you switch to the bigger bin within the first 3 months, however.
The city is outsourcing blue and grey box collection to a company called Emterra Environmental. Whether they choose to go with bins also is uncertain, but that wouldn't change before 2026.
You can still bring stuff to the residential drop-off at KARC for the time being.

2 comments

No doubt these bins are going to be cheap plastic that chip every other winter. But I shouldn't be so negative before learning all the facts... I'm just going to miss my authentic aluminium Oscar the Grouch style garbage can. 🥲 I'm like so proud of it.
- My guess would be they'll be similar to our existing green bins? They use a fairly heavy duty plastic except for that latch part that I've had break on me a few times.
  I'm trying to picture 120L. They say in the article that our green bins are currently 80L. I'm kind of hoping the new ones won't be too tall and skinny like those though? Garbage bags tend to swell out sideways and it could be hard to push them down in there. The article shows one that looks wider and squatter and another that looks taller, but I think those are just stock photos so who knows?