GFL Environmental
Bright lime green with a black lid. Black square panel on the front, green GFL wordmark with a leaf above it.
A field guide
Who actually empties
your bin?
Most owners name the company that was painted on the bin when they signed. In Ontario that is often a business that no longer exists. Here is how to tell, from the parking lot, in about four seconds.
WM
Dark forest green. White panel with a green WM and a gold swoosh, and often a gold band across the front. Front-load bins take a black lid; the one pictured is a roll-off, same paint and same mark.
Waste Connections
Royal blue with a dark lid. White Waste Connections Canada wordmark beside a diamond and leaf emblem.
Republic Services
Blue with a black lid and a red and blue five point star. This is the company that bought Wasteco.
Was Wasteco
Miller Waste Systems
Brown or rust orange, with a diamond badge. Their trucks are tan. Nothing else on an Ontario lot looks like this.
Emterra Environmental
Mid grass green with a black lid, and a white panel carrying a green pinwheel. The Canadian panel reads Emterra Environmental with emterra.ca under it. Bins are usually marked with their size in the corner.
The reason nobody knows
Three of them are green.
WM is dark forest green. Emterra is a mid grass green. GFL is bright lime. Three shades of the same idea, all under a black lid, all in the same plaza. Colour narrows it down; the panel settles it, because each one is a different shape and a different colour.
WM
GFL
Emterra
Paint outlasts paperwork
The local name on the bin
may have been sold years ago.
Both of the largest haulers in this province grew here by buying local companies. A bin is the last thing anyone repaints, so the name you see is frequently a brand that was retired before your current rate was set.
| If the bin says | You are actually buying from | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Wasteco | Republic Services | March 2023 |
| Turtle Island Recycling | GFL Environmental | Acquired |
| Matrec | GFL Environmental | Acquired |
This list is not complete. If the name on your bin is not here and it is not one of the six above, it is worth asking who owns it now.
Why it is worth four seconds
Your agreement belongs to
whoever owns them now.
The rate clause, the renewal, the notice you have to give and the window you get to dispute an increase are all set by the parent company’s paperwork, not by the local outfit whose name you remember. Those terms are not the same from one hauler to the next, and several of the windows are short enough to close before an owner has finished reading the notice.
So the first useful thing anyone can tell you about your waste bill is whose rules you are actually under. That part is free, and you do not have to send us anything to get it.
Curiosity pays.
Not sure whose bin
is out back?
Get a free review
Three invoices. A clear picture. Your decision.
