Most Londoners are using their green bins and have adjusted to biweekly garbage pickup, but the change has come with one major hiccup — an increase in illegal dumping in city parks and in private bins.
City staff say the shift to garbage pickup every other week, as well as a new requirement to book pickup for large waste such as furniture, has led to more people throwing their household garbage in public garbage bins and large dumpsters.
“There seems to be a lot of challenges with this system,” said said Ward 7 Coun. Corrine Rahman. “Especially in new subdivisions, what we’re seeing is a lot of dumping when people are missing or not being mindful of when their garbage goes out.”
In January 2024, London launched a long-awaited green bin program as well as new bi-weekly garbage pickup. Londoners must now make a request if they want a large, bulky item or furniture picked up at the curb.
“City Roadside Operations continue to report that the shift to biweekly garbage pickup and the implementation of a booking program for large furniture and large bulky waste have had impacts on city boulevards and roadsides in the form of illegal dumping and an increase in debris,” city staffers reported to politicians earlier this week.
“City Parks Operations continue to note an increase in the amount of household garbage turning up in parks’ garbage containers, in particular at locations with parking lots,” for example, city arenas that have a dumpster or parks where a car or truck can pull up and unload trash or large items.
The city gets about four calls a day for illegal dumping. Locations of particular concern are being tracked, officials said, with household garbage turning up in park garbage containers a particular problem.
London’s Green Bin program launches on January 15, 2024. (Michelle Both/CBC)
Some Londoners suggested having weekly garbage collection in the summer months, but that was rejected as too costly and something that wouldn’t have enough impact.
Londoner Tom Cull, who in 2011 started the Antler River Rally, a grass-roots effort to clean around the city’s river and other green spaces, said he’s not surprised city officials are seeing more trash being illegally thrown out.
“Illegal dumping has always been an issue,” Cull said. “Year over year we’ve been seeing more garbage, not less. Where there are dumpsters behind buildings, you often see them overflowing onto green spaces, and I’ve definitely seen garbage bags that are tied off, an indication that it’s someone’s kitchen trash or something, just thrown away.”
People have also been throwing out their waste in dumpsters rented by homeowners during renovations or clean-outs, said Stephanie Beer, the general manager of Bin There Dump That, a dumpster rental company in London, Woodstock and Oxford County.
“We always recommend our customers to tarp their bin until the rental period is over because people do go around, see the dumpster, and if there’s no lid, it’s an easy go and throw in the dumpster and be off. People are going to do it,” Beer said.
What does and doesn’t go into the new green bins
London’s long awaited green bin program starts Jan 15. City expert Jay Stanford explains what you can put into it.
“It’s fair game for people, and a lot of people take advantage of that, just drive by and huck their garbage in there.”
City data shows that in 2024, there were 1,537 calls to Service London for illegal dumping and litter on city boulevards, parks, and roads. In the first six months of 2025, there have been 690 such calls.
Ward. 12 Coun. Elizabeth Peloza said her ward, too, has seen an uptick in illegal dumping. “It’s an issue in south London, people rolling up, emptying a whole bed of a truck, then driving off. I’d like to see more enforcement.”
City officials will likely put illegal dumping signs in residential areas, a staffer said.
The city is discussing rolling out a pilot project to allow pet waste into green bins for 1,000 to 3,000 households, as well as allowing churches and non-profits that serve food to hungry Londoners to begin using green bins. If approved by city politicians, the pet waste will be permitted in mid-2026, and the churches in December 2025.