The City of Toronto is doing another survey to help shape waste diversion programs in the future. Until March 8th, staff are gathering public feedback on which actions to prioritise to reduce waste and improve waste diversion across Toronto. These actions are based on consultations from last spring.

Share your thoughts to show support for a zero waste city that:

• Makes it easy for everyone to keep all kinds of waste out of the garbage
• Supports better waste diversion in multi-unit buildings, including recycling and green bin access
• Uses smart, effective policies to prevent waste, and 
• Follows the true Zero Waste Hierarchy (i.e. doesn’t include incineration!).

Take the survey here.

A little bit of background:

Toronto has taken some big steps towards zero waste in the past year, including the ‘Circular Economy Roadmap’ which thinks big picture about how to build strong local zero-waste economies. But we’ve also seen the City explore expensive and polluting false solutions like incineration instead of focusing on preventing waste. That’s why it’s important to keep speaking up to help keep our city on the right track.

Here’s what we think the City should focus on:

• Keep moving forward with regulations and policies that target unnecessary single-use plastic and things like cutlery, disposable dishes and more. 
• Provide Torontonians with more options and better access to dispose of hazardous waste like batteries, electronics, and more. 
• Don’t waste money on false solutions like ‘energy-from-waste’ incineration which is more toxic, more expensive and worse for the climate.
• Improve waste diversion in multi-family buildings: More than half of Toronto households are in multi-unit buildings, and research shows these buildings have many barriers to better waste diversion. The City can look at policies that require better diversion in all buildings, ramp up proactive outreach to property managers, provide more support for residents and look at design standards to ensure new buildings are designed for future diversion.

Most importantly, when you are filling out the survey, make sure to share your thoughts and priorities and use the comments box to share more ideas, even if there aren’t direct questions about the points above!

Click here to take the survey.

How does this survey fit into the City’s plans for dealing with waste (didn't we already do a waste survey)?

This consultation is one part of a bigger, important discussion about waste in Toronto that has been going on for more than a year. Policymakers are grappling with what the City can do to prevent and reduce waste, and how to increase diversion to green bin, blue box, and other places much more sustainable than a garbage bin, including reuse!

This means that it’s a great time to learn more and weigh in. But it also means….a lot of surveys! To help you wrap your head around all the waste surveys in Toronto, we’ve made a quick guide to recent and upcoming strategic waste discussions: 

• Long Term Waste Reduction and Diversion strategy (this is open until March 8, take it here!) - To update the Long Term Waste Strategy (2016), City staff have been consulting the public on how to support better waste sorting and prevention, including a survey last spring to identify areas of focus. Now staff have selected the most impactful options and are asking for feedback to identify the top priorities for the years ahead. 
  • What happens next: Staff will report back with an updated strategy and results of these consultations later this year.
• Long Term Residual Waste (aka Disposal) strategy - In spring 2025, City officials asked the public for input on whether to incinerate or landfill Toronto’s waste. We raised the alarm on the poor consultation process that included misleading and false information that incineration is good for the climate (in Ontario, incineration is much worse than landfill!)
  
  • What happens next: Last fall, Councillors directed staff to dig further into the options and report back in early 2027 on the environmental and health impacts. TEA will monitor this, and we’re going to do more further evaluations on climate impacts of incineration - stay tuned!
• Single-Use Reduction Strategy - In order to prevent waste at the source, Toronto’s ‘Single-Use and Takeaway Items Reduction’ bylaw targets disposable foodware, and the City surveyed the public and businesses last year on options to expand the bylaw to include large venues, and to require reusables for on-site food and drink. This is a policy we’ve seen in other jurisdictions and we’ve been advocating for Toronto to take the leap. It would mean things like stadiums (and the FIFA World Cup 2026 matches) need to offer reusable cups instead of wasteful disposables.
  • What happens next: This spring, staff will be presenting policy options for expanding the by-law - TEA will be watching closely and let you know how to make your voice heard!
• Circular Economy Strategy - Last year the City also sought feedback before the December 2025 release of the inaugural, and very exciting Circular Economy Roadmap, an exciting far-reaching plan for sustainable economic development in Toronto built on conserving resources and eliminating waste. Some actions have already started, such as a grant program for reusable takeout foodware, and they are launching a materials exchange directory.
  • What happens next: We’re excited to see this roll out!

These strategies all take a slightly different angle to the same issues of managing materials and preventing waste, and they can all complement each other well. 

A key consideration across all of these strategies is equity. Are all residents and people in the city getting equal support to prevent, avoid and benefit from less waste? How can waste system choices, and circular economy plans create more local opportunities and benefit equity-deserving communities who may be left out of decisions? 

TEA will be working hard to monitor and shape all of these strategies in 2026 and beyond.

What can you do:

• Participate in the consultations and surveys, tell your family and friends, and reach out to your councillor.
• Let the City know that you want them to invest in zero waste, community solutions and not costly incineration or landfill.