Guide
Who collects what, how to find your day, what goes where, bulk items and fall leaves.
Halton Region collects Burlington's garbage, Green Cart, yard waste and bulk items; since 1 January 2026 the Blue Box has been run by Circular Materials Ontario, and the City of Burlington runs its own loose-leaf pickup in the fall. The Green Cart goes out every week and garbage every other week, three bags or cans before tags. Your collection day depends on your address: look it up in Halton's online schedule.
The City of Burlington and Halton Region share them. Halton Region's online schedule sets your collection days, Halton provides yard waste collection and runs the Halton Waste Management Site, and the City does loose-leaf collection in the fall. As of 1 January 2026, Circular Materials Ontario manages the residential recycling program in Burlington.
It depends on your address. Enter it in Halton Region's online waste collection schedule to see your personal schedule for garbage, the Green Cart, recycling, yard waste and bulk items. The same tool can send free email or phone reminders, add the schedule to your calendar, or print it.
Green Cart: every week on your collection day. Garbage: once every other week. Bulk waste: every other week with your garbage, up to three items. Yard waste: from the first week of April to the second week of December, on your regular garbage day, in urban areas only. Put everything at the curb by 7 a.m. on collection day and no sooner than 5 p.m. the evening before.
No. Halton Region says collection schedules for all curbside collection, including recycling, remain unchanged, and you can keep using your existing Blue Boxes or clear bags. Miller Waste Systems trucks, contracted by Circular Materials, continue to collect it.
If only your Blue Box was missed, contact Miller Waste Systems at 1-855-752-4020 or area14@millerwaste.ca. If your Blue Box and Green Cart were both missed, or any other stream was missed, use Halton Region's online missed collection form.
All food waste, including fruit, vegetables, meat and bones, baked goods, fats, oils and sauces, plus paper products such as paper towels and tissues, paper plates and cups, paper bags, paper egg cartons and coffee filters. Not accepted: plastic bags, plastic food containers, glass, metal, Styrofoam, pet waste, diapers, coffee pods, and PLA or BPI-certified plastic resin plates, cups and cutlery. Line the cart with a BPI-certified bag, paper bag, newspaper or cardboard, and bag and tie organic material: loose items are not collected.
Put only the Green Cart at the curb, not the kitchen catcher. The cart's weight limit is 23 kg (50 lb).
Up to three garbage bags or cans every other week. You can add up to three more with a garbage bag tag on each, for a maximum of six. Bags and cans must weigh no more than 23 kg, cans no larger than 125 litres, and cans may not have large wheels or a permanently attached hinged lid. Recyclables, food waste, electronics and household hazardous waste do not go in the garbage.
Since 1 January 2026 the accepted list is set by Circular Materials Ontario and is the same across the province. Halton Region lists items newly accepted in the Blue Box, including single-use straws and cutlery, hot and cold beverage cups, paper egg cartons, shredded paper, chip bags, cereal liner bags, bubble wrap, foam packaging, empty aerosol containers, pizza boxes, coffee pods and snack wrappers. No longer accepted: books, metal pots, pans and baking sheets.
Halton's older sorting guide still lists some of these items (snack bags, bubble wrap, plastic cutlery, foam) under garbage. The Region's recycling page says they are accepted in the Blue Box from 1 January 2026 and points to Circular Materials for the current list.
Bulk waste is collected every other week with your garbage, up to three items, at the curb by 7 a.m. Accepted items include furniture such as couches, chairs and tables, mattresses and box springs wrapped in plastic, flooring bundled to 1.7 m by 1 m, toilets with the tank removed, and dismantled wood bundled to the same size. Not accepted: hazardous waste, metal and appliances, electronics, tires, building and demolition debris, soil and rocks. Do not pile items or put them in cardboard boxes.
Bulk items go to landfill. Halton suggests donating usable items instead, including to the Reuse Depot at the Halton Waste Management Site.
Metal and appliance collection is by appointment only: request a pickup online or call 311 before putting anything out. Collection may take two to three weeks from the request. Remove appliance doors and lay tall appliances flat.
In paper yard waste bags or open, reusable rigid containers with no lid that carry a Halton yard waste label, up to 125 litres and 23 kg each. Brush must be tied in bundles no larger than 2 m by 1 m, with branches no thicker than 7.5 cm. Leaves, twigs, garden trimmings, fallen fruit and pumpkins are accepted; sod, soil, stumps and plastic bags are not. In Burlington only, grass clippings are accepted in yard waste from October to May.
Yard waste collection is for urban areas only, and should not go to the curb more than one day before collection.
The City of Burlington collects loose leaves in the fall, in three zones, each with its own collection dates; leaves go to the curb, shoulder or boulevard no more than two days before your zone's date, free of branches and debris, and not blocking sidewalks, bike lanes, catch basins or ditches. A leaf collection tracker shows each zone's progress. Leaves put out after crews have finished your street are not picked up: bag them for Halton's yard waste collection instead.
When we checked on 7 October 2026 the City's page still showed the 2025 program (10 November to 5 December) as complete and had not yet posted 2026 dates. The City is seeking provincial approval for a $150 set fine for leaves that block sidewalks, bike lanes or drains.
Garbage bag tags cost five for $10 and do not expire. Order them online or by calling 311, or pick them up at select retail locations and municipal buildings. Households with young children can get up to 40 free diaper bag tags a year, and households with a person with a medical condition up to 40 free healthcare bag tags a year.
Yes, to every Halton household with curbside collection, in two phases. Phase One (about 95,000 households) receives carts between January and March 2027 and starts cart collection in April 2027. Phase Two (the remaining 85,000 households) gets a mailed notice in spring 2027 and starts cart collection in spring 2028. Each household gets a 120-litre organics cart and a 240-litre garbage cart, or a 120-litre one if it asked for the smaller size. Extra bags beside the cart need a tag, up to three.
The Region's page does not list Burlington streets by phase; use its phase lookup for your collection area. Do not use new carts until your phase's collection start date.
City of Burlington
Garbage, Recycling and Leaf CollectionHalton Region
Waste Collection Schedule and RemindersHalton Region
Curbside Collection and Waste Sorting GuideHalton Region
RecyclingHalton Region
Missed CollectionCity of Burlington
Leaf CollectionHalton Region
Wheeled Cart Waste Collection Program