Residents of Northern Wellington County will soon be part of a trend that many communities in midwestern Ontario are following, which is using large wheeled carts for curbside recycling.
Starting in mid-August, households in Mapleton, Minto, and Wellington North will transition from the traditional blue boxes to 360-litre recycling carts.
This change is being implemented 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. Once the new service kicks off for a household, blue boxes will no longer be accepted at the curb.
“Recycling collection moves to every other week,” Circular Materials said.
Collection days will stay the same, with recycling picked up during 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 shift to wheeled carts was discussed by Wellington North council back in February 2025, before producers took over responsibility for residential recycling.
The council learned that this transition could save Wellington County nearly $2 million and would likely lead to households receiving these carts.
Wellington County also offers a separate business recycling-cart service in several areas like Arthur, Mount Forest, Drayton, Moorefield, Clifford, Harriston, and Palmerston.
This change in northern Wellington aligns with other municipalities across midwestern Ontario moving towards automated cart collection systems.
In Grey County, places like Grey Highlands and Southgate were already using carts before Hanover adopted them in 2025. West Grey added recycling carts last year and started using garbage carts in June. Georgian Bluffs and Chatsworth also launched cart-based systems this past July.
In Huron County, North Huron made both garbage and recycling carts mandatory earlier this month while Howick plans to start automated collection in August. Other municipalities such as Goderich, Central Huron, Huron East, Morris-Turnberry, Bluewater, and South Huron were already utilizing automated carts through the Bluewater Recycling Association.
In Perth County, Stratford switched to 360-litre recycling carts back in January while North Perth, Perth East, Perth South, West Perth and St. Marys were already participating in automated recycling programs.
Most municipalities in Bruce County haven’t made similar changes yet. Even though residential recycling duties shifted to producers at the start of 2026; places like Kincardine, Huron-Kinloss, Brockton, South Bruce, and South Bruce Peninsula are still using conventional blue boxes instead of switching to larger ones.
A few municipalities have mentioned that their current collection vehicles can’t handle emptying the larger carts used elsewhere.
Wellington County residents can either reuse their old blue boxes or bring them to a county waste facility for free recycling. The boxes won’t be picked up at the curb 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].
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