Yard waste pickup in 2026: where your gutter leaves go

Leaves, twigs and seed pods from your gutters can go out with yard waste in kraft paper bags or labelled rigid bins, never plastic bags. Toronto collects every other week until about mid-November, Richmond Hill weekly from October 13 to December 11, and Peel weekly in Brampton and Mississauga. Rake leaves to the curb, never onto the road.

When is yard waste picked up this fall?

It depends on your city, and the end dates differ by weeks. Here is the fall 2026 picture for three of the biggest GTA programs, from each city's own pages:

Sources: the City of Toronto yard waste page, Peel Region's set-out rules and 2026 season notice, and Richmond Hill's yard waste page. Schedules vary by street and change year to year, so check your city's collection calendar or app for your exact dates.

One change to note in Mississauga: Council has approved moving garbage, organics and yard waste collection from Peel to the City on October 1, 2027. Until then, Peel's rules apply.

Can gutter debris go in yard waste?

Mostly, yes. Leaves, twigs, maple keys, seed pods and pine cones from the gutters are the same material the cities collect off the lawn. Toronto accepts leaves, twigs and roots. Peel goes further and lists "leaves and yard rakings with debris" as acceptable, and notes that collectors may open bags to check what is inside.

The black sludge at the bottom of the trough is the grey area. It is mostly rotted leaves, but it also carries shingle grit and silt, and Toronto does not accept soil or sod in yard waste. Let a bucket of sludge drain, then mix it into a bag that is mostly dry leaves rather than filling a bag with it alone. A wet bag of pure sludge is heavy, splits easily and looks a lot like soil to a collector.

What bags and containers are allowed?

• Toronto: kraft paper yard waste bags or rigid open-top containers with an outside height of 55 to 95 cm. Plastic bags and cardboard boxes are not collected, and blue or grey recycling boxes cannot be used. Bundled branches must be under 20 kg, and wood over 7.5 cm across goes to a private company.
• Peel: kraft paper bags under 20 kg, closable and smaller than 66 cm wide by 90 cm high, or reusable rigid bins up to 125 L, marked "yard waste" with a marker or a free sticker. Blue, grey and green carts are not yard waste containers, and plastic bags are not collected.
• Richmond Hill: large kraft paper bags or reusable rigid open-top containers up to 125 L with a yellow sticker, each no more than 18 kg. No plastic bags, and no soil, sod or grass clippings.

Set-out times are similar across the three: Toronto's daytime routes want yard waste out by 7 a.m. and no earlier than 8 p.m. the night before, Peel's by 7 a.m. on pickup day, and Richmond Hill's by 7 a.m. and no earlier than 6 p.m. the night before.

Why should leaves stay off the road and out of catch basins?

Leaves in the gutter of the street go straight to the catch basin, the grate that takes rainwater off the road. A mat of wet leaves over the grate stops it draining, and the next heavy rain floods the street and the driveways along it. Richmond Hill puts it plainly on its yard waste page: please do not rake or blow leaves onto the road.

Toronto has asked the same of residents after heavy rain. In July 2024 the City asked people, where safe to do so, to clear catch basins in front of their homes to prevent surface flooding. If you blow leaves off a roof or a lawn, aim them onto the lawn or into a tarp for bagging, never toward the street. Should you blow leaves off your roof? covers the roof side of that job.

What if you miss the last pickup?

In Toronto the season ends around mid-November, which catches people who clean their gutters in late November, under oaks that drop late. You have three good options:

1. 1Use the leaves at home. Toronto and Peel both suggest leaving some fallen leaves and small brush in the yard in fall for pollinators, and shredded leaves make good mulch on garden beds.
2. 2Store full kraft bags under cover until collection resumes. Toronto restarts around mid-March; keep the bags dry so they do not split.
3. 3Book the gutter cleaning so the debris leaves with the crew, not with the city. A professional cleaning bags and hauls away what it removes, whatever the pickup calendar says.

Whatever you do, do not leave bags of wet sludge sitting in the gutter of the street or against the house all winter. If you clean the gutters yourself, our step-by-step guide covers bagging as you go, and the fall exterior checklist puts the job in order with everything else before the freeze.

What does fall clean-up look like in Scarborough?

Scarborough is in Toronto, so Toronto's every-other-week schedule and mid-November end apply. Its trees do not wait for the calendar. The silver maples of Wexford and Agincourt can load a clean gutter in a single windy October week, and along the Bluffs the wind keeps delivering long after the trees are bare. Ravine streets in Guildwood and West Hill, backing onto the Rouge Valley side, collect oak, ash and maple debris and usually earn a mid-fall touch-up on top of the late-fall clean.

Our crews hand-clear every eavestrough, flush every downspout and bag and haul away all the debris, so nothing waits for pickup day. Roof debris removal in Scarborough adds $59 to blow the leaves off the roof first, so they do not wash back into a clean gutter. Birch Cliff bungalows sit at $339, side-splits price as two storeys at $399, and ravine-backing lots add $20, before HST in 2026.

Sources

• City of Toronto: Yard waste
• Region of Peel: Yard waste set-out
• Region of Peel: Acceptable yard waste
• Region of Peel: Yard waste collection begins week of March 9 (2026)
• City of Richmond Hill: Yard waste
• City of Mississauga: Waste collection services will shift to Mississauga in 2027
• City of Toronto: Update on response efforts following heavy rainfall (July 2024)