Waste Stickers

The City of St. John’s collects garbage at the curb every week, and recycling and yard waste every second week. Learn your collection schedule, and sign up for reminders, on our schedule lookup or call Access St. John’s at 311 or 754-CITY (2489).

When waste is placed at the curb incorrectly and cannot be collected, our collectors leave a sticker on the bag or cart to let the resident know what the issue is so they can correct it before the next collection day.

If you’ve received a sticker on your waste bags or cart, below outlines why the waste could not be collected; once residents fix the issue it can be picked up during the next collection.

Recycling Oops

This pink sticker is put on blue bags of recycling that:

• Are at the curb on a week that is not recycling collection
• includes glass, Styrofoam, plastic bags or other unrecyclables (put in garbage)
• have containers & papers in the same bag (must be in separate bags)

Garbage Oops

This blue sticker is put on garbage bags or carts that:

• exceeded the weekly garbage bag limit of 4 bags, or the lid of the cart could not close
• are too close to other objects; carts require 1 metre of clearance for the garbage truck arms that pick up the carts
• yard waste (ie. grass, twigs, plants, etc) must be in paper yard waste bags

Clear Bag Thank You

This sticker is different from the others – we leave them on garbage carts that are using clear bags for garbage and we want to thank you for that.

Did you know? Since the City began requiring clear bags for garbage in January 2022, the amount of recycling the City collects curbside in blue bags has increased 25-30% over the same periods in the previous five years.

Clear Bag Oops

Since January 2022 the City has required that garbage at the curb be put in clear colourless bags, with the exception of 1 privacy bag per week. At this time curbside recycling also became mandatory.

The main reasons we require clear bags for garbage are to:

• increase recycling
• remove hazardous waste/items from garbage
• heighten safety for collection staff

We need to decrease the amount of waste, and stop hazardous waste such as batteries, going to the landfill.

Did you know? Since the City began requiring clear bags for garbage in January 2022, the amount of recycling the City collects curbside in blue bags has increased 25-30% over the same periods in the previous five years.

Clear garbage bags to encourage recycling is a new concept for St. John’s but in other municipalities across Canada it’s an old idea including in Mount Pearl where clear bags have been required since 2017, in Central Newfoundland since 2015 and more recently in Western Newfoundland.