Cold Warning Issued

Cold Warning: Lakelands Public Health is issuing a Cold Warning for the County of Haliburton, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Northumberland County and the City and County of Peterborough, effective starting February 7th, through to February 8th.

Cold Warning Issued as Severe Cold Weather Approaches

Blue Box Recycling

Curbside Recycling in Peterborough County is managed by Circular Materials and collected by Emterra.

As of January 1, 2026, new materials are accepted in your Blue Box, including: 

  • Hot and cold beverage cups and lids
  • Styrofoam
  • All flexible packaging, now including chip bags and granola bar wrappers
  • Plastic tubes, including deodorant and toothpaste containers, and more

Full details on updated Blue Box materials can be found at Circular Materials. 

Contact Emterra Environmental at 1-888-597-1541 for any questions about your recycling including missed collections, recycling inquiries, and new blue boxes

Contact Emterra Environmental at 1-888-597-1541 for any questions about your recycling including missed collections, recycling inquiries, and new blue boxes

Producer Responsibility means producers – the companies that design, create and market products and packaging – are fully responsible for managing and paying for the life cycle of their products and packaging. Producer Responsibility looks at the entire life-cycle of a product to ensure effective production and management of packaging to reduce overall waste. 

The province’s intention with this shift is to make recycling easier for people and to ensure that the recycling program remains viable over the long-term by: 

  • Ensuring a common collection system, province-wide 

  • Creating a standard list of materials that can be recycled across the province 

  • Saving taxpayers money by transitioning recycling programs from municipal management to producer management 

  • Promoting waste diversion by setting province-wide targets 

  • Innovating new and alternative collection methods to divert materials that currently can't be recycled in the blue box 

Companies that produce blue box materials sold in Ontario are responsible and held accountable for collecting these materials and recycling them into new products. 

These companies, also known as Producers, fulfill their regulatory obligations collectively through Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs). The PROs have come together to run a single, new, province-wide common collection system. The approved common collection system administrator is a non-profit company called Circular Materials. 

Circular Materials is responsible for the collection of blue box materials from homes and residential buildings across Ontario, including the residential portion of mixed commercial and residential properties. 

Circular Materials holds contracts with collection companies to pick up the blue box material. 

Termination of Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional (IC&I) Blue Box Collection- January 1, 2026
The producer led blue box program applies to residential and other eligible properties including schools, and non-profit long-term care and retirement homes, but excludes non-eligible sources such as businesses, places of worship, municipal buildings, daycares, commercial farms, charities, and campgrounds and trailer parks. These types of properties will not receive blue box collection funded by the producers under the new blue box program. 

Under the new regulations, the potential costs for Peterborough County to manage recycling for all IC&I properties across the County are not viable.

Peterborough County has discontinued the collection of blue box materials from IC&I properties that are not eligible for participation in the provincial program, as of January 1, 2026.
If your business/organization is currently participating in Peterborough County’s blue box program, you will no longer receive blue box collection as of January 1, 2026.

Recycling collection options for IC&I properties
IC&I properties must make alternate arrangements to properly dispose of recyclable materials. Below is a non-comprehensive list of possible service providers. Please call the individual business to learn about their programs and pricing.
Please note that Peterborough County does not endorse or vouch for any of these service providers.
Contractor
Phone Number
Website
Emterra Group
1-888-597-1541
Waste Connections
1-844-708-7274
Miller Waste
1-800-465-5914
GFL Environmental
1-866-417-2797

Contact Us

Contact Peterborough County
470 Water Street
Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 3M3

Monday – Friday
8:30am – 4:30pm

Phone: 705-743-0380/1-800-710-9586
Fax: 705-876-1730
info@ptbocounty.ca