Guide
Collection days, bag limits, tags, bulk items, and what changed in 2026.
Halton Region collects Oakville's waste. The Green Cart is collected every week, garbage and Blue Box every other week on the same day, with a three-bag limit before tags. Wheeled garbage and organics carts replace bags and cans in two phases, from April 2027 or spring 2028 depending on your address; check yours on Halton's phase map.
It depends on your address. Halton Region's schedule tool shows your personal calendar for garbage, Green Cart, Blue Box, yard waste and bulk items, and can email or phone you reminders. There is no single Oakville-wide day.
Put everything at the curb by 7 a.m. on your day, and no earlier than 5 p.m. the evening before.
Green Cart (food and organic waste): every week on your collection day. Garbage: once every other week. Blue Box: every other week. Bulk items: every other week with your garbage. Yard waste: from the first week of April to the second week of December, on your regular garbage day.
For the 2025–26 holidays Halton moved collection one day later for Thursday and Friday routes after Christmas Day and New Year's Day, and left Monday to Wednesday routes unchanged. After Christmas you may put out up to three extra untagged garbage bags on your first garbage day. Real Christmas trees are collected in the two weeks after New Year's.
Holiday changes are announced each year. Check the schedule tool for your own address rather than assuming last year's pattern.
From 26 October to 4 December 2026. It is run by the Town of Oakville, not Halton Region, and only in neighbourhoods at least 25 years old with many large, mature trees. Each zone gets three passes: Zones 1, 2, 3 and 7 in the weeks of 26 October, 9 November and 23 November; Zones 4, 5, 6 and 8 in the weeks of 2 November, 16 November and 30 November. Zone A is collected from 16 to 23 November, and Zones B and C from 20 to 27 November. Rake leaves loose onto the boulevard or road shoulder by 7 a.m. on the first day of your zone's week, and no more than seven days before.
Keep leaves off storm drains, bike lanes and ditches, and free of branches and garbage. Leaves put out after your zone's pickup are not collected; bag them in paper yard waste bags for Halton's yard waste collection instead. Some areas are not in the program at all, so check the zone list first.
If only your Blue Box was missed, contact Miller Waste Systems at 1-855-752-4020 or area14@millerwaste.ca, because recycling is now run by Circular Materials Ontario rather than the Region. If the Blue Box and Green Cart were both missed, or any other stream, use Halton Region's online missed-collection form.
Three bags or cans every other week without tags. Anything over three needs a $2 garbage tag, and the most you can put out is six (three untagged plus three tagged). Cans must be 125 litres or smaller, under 23 kg, with no large wheels or permanently attached hinged lid.
These are the rules before wheeled carts arrive. From April 2027 for Phase One households, and spring 2028 for Phase Two, garbage goes in a Region-supplied cart, with up to three tagged bags allowed beside it.
Tags cost $2 each and are sold in sheets of five for $10. Order them online or through 311, buy them at the Halton Waste Management Site in Milton, or pick them up at selected stores and municipal buildings. Every bag over the three-bag limit needs one.
Yes. Up to three bulk items are collected every other week with your garbage. Mattresses must be wrapped in plastic, and bulk items must not be put out in cardboard boxes. Metal items and appliances are collected separately, by appointment, and can take two to three weeks from the request.
The Green Cart is collected weekly and can weigh up to 23 kg (50 lb). Line it with certified compostable bags, paper or newspaper, not plastic. Put it out by 7 a.m.
From the first week of April to the second week of December, on your regular garbage day, in paper yard waste bags or a rigid container with a Halton yard-waste label. Grass clippings are not accepted. Oakville also has a bulk brush call-in collection through 311, and the Town runs a separate loose-leaf collection in the fall.
Since 1 January 2026, Circular Materials Ontario oversees residential Blue Box recycling in Oakville and the rest of Halton, with Miller Waste as the collector. Halton Region no longer manages it, and Blue Boxes are no longer handed out at the Halton Waste Management Site. Collection days did not change with the transfer.
In two phases. Phase One, about 95,000 households across Halton, was notified by mail in June 2026, receives carts between January and March 2027, and starts cart collection in April 2027. Phase Two, the remaining 85,000 households, gets a mailed notice in spring 2027 and starts cart collection in spring 2028. Each household gets a 120-litre organics cart and a garbage cart: the standard 240 litres, or 120 litres if it asked for the smaller size. Households cannot opt out.
Phase One households should not use the new carts before April 2027; they will not be collected until then. The Phase One window to ask for the smaller garbage cart closed in August 2026, with a one-time chance to exchange sizes about three months after cart collection begins. Blue Box, yard waste, metal and bulk collection do not change.
Check your address on Halton Region's interactive phase map: search your address or zoom in, and the map says which phase your household is in. Halton does not publish a list of Oakville streets or neighbourhoods by phase. Its map labels each area by municipality and collection day, and Oakville has both Tuesday and Friday collection areas in Phase One and in Phase Two, so your collection day does not tell you your phase.
Phase One includes the homes in Halton's earlier demonstration and expansion areas that already use wheeled garbage carts. Phase One households were notified by mail; if you have not had a letter and believe you are in Phase One, call 311. Halton says the phasing is designed to keep the existing collection schedule for about 95 per cent of households.
The Halton Waste Management Site is at 5400 Regional Road 25 in Milton, open Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The minimum fee is $10, paid by credit or debit only. Household hazardous waste is free, up to 20 litres a day. It is closed on New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, the Civic Holiday, Labour Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Foam packaging is. Halton Region lists foam packaging among the items accepted in the Blue Box from 1 January 2026, when Circular Materials Ontario took over recycling, along with items such as bubble wrap, chip bags, coffee pods and pizza boxes.
Halton's curbside sorting guide still lists Styrofoam under garbage. The Region points to Circular Materials Ontario for the current list of accepted Blue Box items.
Halton Region
Waste Collection ScheduleHalton Region
Curbside Collection and Waste Sorting GuideTown of Oakville
Loose Leaf CollectionHalton Region
Missed CollectionHalton Region
Garbage Bag Tag FormHalton Region
Metal and Appliance CollectionHalton Region
RecyclingHalton Region
Wheeled Cart Waste Collection ProgramHalton Region
Halton Waste Management Site