Residents across Milton and the rest of the Halton Region will soon see a change in how garbage and organics are collected as part of a new region-wide program. Announced on April 22, 2026, the project will replace traditional manual collection with new, wheeled carts for waste and organics.
The program, which aims to improve service reliability, boost worker safety by reducing manual lifting, and keep neighborhoods cleaner by limiting pest access, builds on a successful 2023 pilot project that tested the carts in eight neighborhoods. Every household will receive one 120-litre green organics cart, which includes a gravity lock, and one 240-litre black garbage cart, which holds roughly three to four standard garbage bags.
The rollout is divided into two phases. Phase One, which includes a large portion of the region, will see residents notified by mail in June 2026. These households will receive their new carts between January and March 2027, with official collection using the carts beginning in April 2027. Households included in this first phase will have the option to request a smaller 120-litre garbage cart during a window from June to August 2026. Phase Two will follow for the remaining residents, with notifications starting in the spring of 2027 and collection beginning in the spring of 2028.
In Milton, many residents are already familiar with the carts, as approximately 2,750 households in Wards 1, 3, and 4 were included in an earlier expansion in 2025. The town will continue to be integrated into the broader regional plan as the rollout progresses.
While the new carts will change how garbage and organics are handled, the process for recycling will remain the same. Circular Materials Ontario, the organization that took over the Blue Box program on January 1, 2026, has decided to continue with manual blue box collection. According to Halton Region officials, this decision rests with the agency responsible for recycling services.
