Public litter bins are a widespread piece of infrastructure – so widespread that in a busy urban city like Toronto, most people don’t think twice about them. However, research has shown that while we are accustomed to these bins, their placement, abundance, and design can significantly impact user interactions with them, including the tendency for waste to be littered and/or placed into the incorrect waste stream.
A challenge for city staff and other decision makers is determining what changes to public waste infrastructure affects user interactions, leading to reduced littering and improved waste sorting in Toronto. Moreover, changes need to be feasible and account for the resource limitations associated with managing street litter bins (e.g., the number that can be deployed and regular maintenance requirements).
Our team aims to help solve this puzzle by informing better bin design across our city to reduce plastic pollution and help transition to a circular economy.
Project Overview
Phase 1: Summer 2025
Public Litter Bin Pilot
We collaborated with the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area (DYBIA) to examine how public litter bin design affected littering, aesthetics, and waste sorting.
We compared a common litter bin model (Astral WR4) to a more recent fleet of bins piloted in 2024 — bins that are more user-friendly and have since expanded throughout the city (Astral WR5). We also assessed the addition of two high-tech self-compacting solar powered bins with built-in capacity sensors (Big Belly and CleanCUBE).
Left to right: older Astral bin (WR4), new conventional Astral bin (WR5), self-compacting bin
Results:
We observed reductions in litter around the newer Astral WR5 model and, even more so around the compacting bins in the DYBIA, demonstrating that the newer models could help create cleaner streets and reduce plastic pollution.
Cigarette Receptacle Pilot
Moreover, we installed three standalone TerraCycle cigarette receptacles in Sankofa Square. We did this additional study because we saw that people infrequently use the built-in cigarette receptacles on public litter bins. Due to the success of our Kicking Plastic’s Butt initiative, where we saw a decrease in cigarette filter litter with increased receptacles in St James Town, we wanted to see if more visible cigarette disposal options could lead to declines in cigarette butt litter in a high foot-traffic environment.
Results:
We saw declines in all areas where we installed standalone cigarette receptacles (up to almost 50% in one location). In the control area, without a receptacle, we saw an increase in cigarette butt litter over the study period.
Phase 2: Summer 2026
Public Litter Bin Pilot
Our research explored two ongoing questions about the management of waste that generally goes into public litter bins to inform future decisions by the City of Toronto.
- Bin Signage
We aimed to understand how signage and bin wraps can be better designed to improve waste sorting and facilitate better recycling. With the support of Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada, we installed simple and direct signage on three outdoor dual-stream (landfill and recycling) bins. Our aim was to reduce contamination in the recycling stream – an issue which negatively impacts public litter bins in the City of Toronto and prevents any recyclable materials from actually being processed.
A list of 6 acceptable items, with icons, was added to the recycling bin, while signage on the landfill bin directed people to dispose of all other items, including food-soiled.
Results:
Simple signage improved waste sorting. The proportion of items which were correctly sorted in the recycling stream rose from 54% before signage was added to 71% while the signage was in place. The increase in correct sorting was largely the result of less food-soiled items being added to the bins, which can contaminate other items which were otherwise correctly sorted.
2. Bin Availability
We aimed to measure how increased bin availability at intersections along major arterial corridors in the City of Toronto affects the prevalence of littered waste.
We measured 156 transects from each of the 8 intersection corners of each intersection, counting and characterizing every piece of litter, while recording the overall number of public litter bins in the transect.
Results:
We did not find any discernible connection between the amount of public litter bins at a given intersection and rates of littering. However, these results did find that approximately 74% of all littered items were cigarette filters and that the prevalence of cigarette filters did not vary with bin availability. This lack of an association suggests that built-in cigarette receptacles do not play a significant role in reducing cigarette filter litter in the City of Toronto.
This project is led by Rein Maynard, an undergraduate in Biodiversity, Conservation Biology and Political Science at the University of Toronto. He is currently a Pollution Prevention Project Fellow leading a project informing the best type of city garbage bin to reduce litter and improve waste sorting. Previously, Rein was a Fighting Floatables research assistant, where we collected and characterized litter from trash capture devices as part of the Toronto Inner Harbour Floatables Strategy.
For more information, please email Rein Maynard or Chelsea Rochman.
Phase 1 was led in collaboration with the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area.
Phase 2 is supported by Community Matters Toronto.
