Recycling bins and refuse in Toronto in June, 2025. A group of private companies has now taken over pick-up duties from the city.Giordano Ciampini/The Canadian Press

Another month in Toronto, another fiasco.

Last month, it was the opening of a new, suburban transit service. The long-awaited $3.7-billion Finch West light-rail line turned out to be so slow that one guy put on his jogging shoes and managed to outrun it.

This month it is a new recycling pick-up service.

A group of private companies has just taken over pick-up duties from the city. In most neighbourhoods, the same garbage trucks still pick up recycling on the same days from the same bins, but oversight now lies with a not-for-profit organization called Circular Materials, which acts on behalf of companies like Loblaws and PepsiCo.

Many residents who left their blue bins out for a special postholiday collection found that the garbage trucks failed to arrive. Their bins sat outside in the snow. Those who called in to find out what was happening often could not get an answer. It seemed incredible that after months, even years, of preparation for the........

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