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 seeks to explore three ongoing questions about the management of waste that generally goes into public litter bins to inform future decisions by the City of Toronto.
- Public Litter Bin Design
- We aim to understand how signage and bin wraps can be better designed to improve waste sorting and facilitate better recycling.
- Standalone Cigarette Receptacle
- We aim to understand how the location and density of cigarette butt receptacles affect cigarette butt litter (which is a form of plastic pollution).
- Bin Density
- We aim to measure how increased bin availability at intersections along major arterial corridors in the City of Toronto affects the prevalence of littered waste.
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.
