Residents of Northern Wellington county will soon be joining a growing list of communities in midwestern Ontario that are adopting large wheeled carts for curbside recycling.
Starting in mid-August, homes in Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North will transition from the old blue boxes to 360-litre recycling carts.
This change is being rolled out across all of Wellington County.
“Starting in mid-August, Wellington County will transition to an enhanced curbside recycling system that includes a new recycling cart and collection schedule,” Circular Materials said.
Carts have been delivered throughout July. After the new service starts for a household, blue boxes won’t be accepted at the curb anymore.
“Recycling collection moves to every other week,” Circular Materials said.
Collection days will stay the same, with recycling picked up on the opposite week from garbage collection.
The introduction of carts doesn’t affect Wellington County’s garbage or green-bin programs. Garbage will still be collected every other week using the county’s user-pay bag system, while green-bin organics will continue on a weekly basis.
The eventual shift to wheeled carts was discussed by Wellington North council back in February 2025, prior to producers taking charge of residential recycling.
Council learned that this transition was expected to save Wellington County nearly $2 million and would likely lead to households receiving carts.
Wellington County also provides a separate business recycling-cart service in several towns, including Arthur, Mount Forest, Drayton, Moorefield, Clifford, Harriston and Palmerston.
This change for northern Wellington comes as more municipalities across midwestern Ontario move towards automated cart collection systems.
In Grey County, Grey Highlands and Southgate were already utilizing carts before Hanover introduced them in 2025. West Grey added recycling carts last year and garbage carts in June. Georgian Bluffs and Chatsworth launched their cart-based systems in July as well.
In Huron County, North Huron made both garbage and recycling carts mandatory earlier this month. Howick is set to begin automated collection next month. Other municipalities like Goderich, Central Huron, Huron East, Morris-Turnberry, Bluewater and South Huron have already been using automated carts through the Bluewater Recycling Association.
In Perth County, Stratford switched over to 360-litre recycling carts back in January. North Perth, Perth East, Perth South, West Perth and St. Marys were already part of automated recycling initiatives before then.
Most Bruce County municipalities haven’t adopted this change yet. Even though responsibility for residential recycling shifted to producers at the start of 2026, communities like Kincardine, Huron-Kinloss, Brockton, South Bruce and South Bruce Peninsula are still using traditional blue boxes.
Some municipalities have mentioned that their current collection vehicles aren’t able to empty the larger carts used elsewhere.
Wellington County residents can either keep their old blue boxes or take them to a county waste facility for free recycling. The boxes won’t be picked up at curbside anymore.
If residents have questions about collection details or need to report missed pickups they can reach out to Waste Management at 1-800-561-1655 or [email protected].
