Kingston recycling & waste collection
Blue box, grey box, cardboard, garbage and yard waste, picked up on a set day every week. Same truck, same crew, same day — and everything that can be diverted is sorted out before the rest goes anywhere.
- Set day, every week
- Sorted before it is hauled
- Homes, rentals & businesses
- Invoiced or paid on the spot
A collection route, not a call centre
Most of what TakeAway & Recycle does every week is unglamorous and completely reliable: 250+ homes and businesses across Kingston and the surrounding area get their bins emptied on the same day, by the same crew, without anybody having to phone about it.
The recycling half of that is the part people notice. Blue box containers, grey box paper and fibre, and flattened cardboard all come off the stop separately. Sorting happens before the load is hauled, not after — which costs the crew time on site and is the whole reason the word "Recycle" is in the company name.
Garbage goes on the same run. So does yard waste in the spring and fall, and the odd extra bag that a municipal pickup would have left at the curb. If it comes off your property on a schedule, it belongs on this route.
Two ways people start
Set it and forget it. Pick a day, tell Brock what comes out, and the bins are handled every week from then on. That is most of the route.
Just this once. A garage full of flattened boxes, a spring yard clean-up, a pile of recycling after a party. One call, one pickup, no agreement.
Homes or businesses — pick your side
The job is the same and the schedule is not. Household pickup fits around your week; a restaurant with a cardboard bin filling every two days needs something else entirely.
Residential recycling & garbage pickup
Weekly blue box, grey box and garbage collection for houses, apartments, student rentals and short-term rentals across Kingston. Extra bags and yard waste welcome.
Residential pickupCommercial waste & recycling collection
Restaurants, retail, offices, funeral homes, property managers and job sites. Scheduled routes, cardboard volume handled, invoiced monthly.
Commercial collectionWhat goes on the truck
If you are not sure about something specific, ask — the answer is usually yes, and where it is no there is normally somewhere better to take it.
Collected on the route
- Blue box containers — plastic, metal, glass
- Grey box paper, boxboard and newspaper
- Flattened cardboard, any volume
- Household and commercial garbage
- Yard waste: branches, brush, leaves, grass
- Extra bags a municipal pickup left behind
- Rental and Airbnb turnover waste
- Construction cardboard and packaging
Not on this truck
- Propane tanks and pressurised cylinders
- Paint, oil, solvents, chemicals
- Anything flammable or toxic
- Tires — these need a specific depot
- Some electronics — ask and we will point you
- Medical or biohazard waste
How the route gets set up
- Call or text BrockTell him the address, roughly what comes out each week, and whether it is a house or a business. Two minutes on the phone.
- Get a numberYou get a real price before anything is booked. Nothing starts until you have said yes to it.
- Pick a dayThe route already runs across Kingston and the surrounding towns, so your stop slots into the day that suits the truck and suits you.
- Bins get emptiedSame day every week. Recycling sorted, garbage hauled, and you stop thinking about it.
The rest of what we do
Junk removal
One-off pickups where the crew does the lifting: furniture, appliances, mattresses, renovation debris and full property cleanouts.
See junk removalBin rentals
A 14-yard bin dropped in the driveway or on the job site. Fill it on your own schedule and call when it is ready to go.
See bin rentalsWhere the truck goes
Kingston is home base and most of the route sits inside the city, but the truck runs west through Loyalist Township, north into South Frontenac, east to Gananoque and across on the ferry to Wolfe Island.
Recycling questions we get a lot
Do you do recycling pickup in Kingston?
Yes. Recycling pickup is the backbone of the route — blue box, grey box and cardboard collected on a set day every week for homes, rental properties and businesses across Kingston. It runs alongside your garbage pickup, so one crew handles both on the same stop.
What is the difference between the blue bin and the grey box?
In Kingston the blue box takes containers — plastic containers, metal cans, glass bottles and jars — and the grey box takes paper and fibre: newspaper, flyers, magazines, office paper and corrugated cardboard, plus plastic bags bundled into one tied bag. City curbside collection alternates between the two week by week. On our route both come off the same stop on the same day, and anything in the wrong box gets sorted at the truck rather than left behind.
Where can I drop off cardboard in Kingston?
The City of Kingston's recycling depot on Lappan's Lane closed permanently on January 1, 2026, so there is no longer a City drop-off for loose cardboard. Homes still get blue and grey box curbside pickup on alternating weeks. Cardboard beyond what fits in the boxes, and any business's cardboard, we collect on the weekly route, and for restaurants and shops with real volume we swap a cardboard bin as often as the box fills.
Do you take styrofoam?
The City's current blue box list includes Styrofoam, with foam packing peanuts the exception, so clean foam packaging can go out with your recycling. The City's What Goes Where tool has the current rules and they have changed recently, so check it if you are unsure. Foam mixed in with a junk removal load is a different story — that we handle.
Where do I get recycling bins?
Since July 1, 2025 the City's blue and grey box program has been run by Circular Materials Ontario, with Emterra doing the collecting, so replacement boxes come through them rather than City Hall; the City's recycling page has the details. If you are on our collection route, the bins are part of setting the service up — ask Brock what is included when you book.
Do you pick up yard waste?
Yes. Branches, brush, leaves, grass and garden clearing all go on the truck, either as a one-off after a big weekend in the yard or added to a regular pickup. Spring and fall are the busy stretch for it, so call ahead when you know a clean-up is coming.
Why pay for recycling pickup when the City collects the blue and grey boxes?
The City's boxes alternate week by week, each box has a 44 lb (20 kg) limit, and the program is for households only. What you pay us for is a weekly stop on a set day with no box limit, cardboard in the volume you actually produce, and service for rentals and businesses the City program does not cover.
Where does my business take recycling now that the City depot has closed?
The City's Lappan's Lane depot closed on January 1, 2026, and the City's household curbside program does not cover businesses, so businesses have to arrange their own collection. That is the commercial route: cardboard, containers and paper kept separate, picked up as often as your volume needs.
Do you collect outside Kingston — Loyalist Township or Frontenac County?
We do. The route runs west into Loyalist Township for Amherstview, Bath and Odessa, north into South Frontenac for Sydenham, Harrowsmith, Verona, Inverary and Battersea, east to Gananoque, and across on the ferry to Wolfe Island. Napanee in Lennox & Addington is on the list too.
Get a price on weekly pickup
Tell Brock what comes out of the property each week and he will give you a number. Most quotes take a few minutes.
- All payment types accepted
Or send the details and skip the call
Fill this in, hit send, and it lands with Brock ready to go.