A gold box:

• Is the gold medal of recycling. 
• Rewards recycling knowledge in action.
• Proves you know ‘what goes where’.
• Is usually handed out between March and November since we can see what’s in your bin before 7 a.m.
• Should be used weekly.

Winning a gold box is as easy as 1-2-3
1. Sign in and have your address placed on our list. We randomly select addresses to determine which neighbourhoods get a trash audit.
2. Put your green bin, blue boxes and any trash or yard waste at the curb by 7:00 a.m. every week.We take a look at what’s inside blue boxes and green bins early in the morning before they’re picked up.We check for food scraps in your green bins and at least two properly sorted blue boxes (one for paper and card board and a different one for bottles, cans and jars). We look to see that the right stuff is in the right bin and there isn’t any stuff in the wrong bin.

3. Put out one bag of garbage or less at the curb each week.

Addresses are selected randomly, but winners are not. Only the best recyclers have the chance to win a gold box.

Sign up for your chance to win by clicking here.

I want to know when I’ll get mine.
Once you’re on our list, you could win a gold box at any time.

We go out each month when we have the time to. Sometimes it’s early in the month, sometimes it’s in the middle of the month and sometimes it’s near the end of the month. We’ll tell you where we’re going to be on our Join the conversation blog.

If we’re in your neighbourhood and you win, you’ll probably get your gold box the same day.

I want to know how you decide who gets one.
We randomly select addresses from our list of people who have signed up to figure out whose recycling we’re going to look at. Our list is sorted by political Wards so that we can go to every Ward every year.

The address selection process is random and anonymous. Information about your address is kept confidential and at no time will be shared with anyone.

You are allowed to sign up once. For a better chance of being randomly selected, make sure you get all of your neighbours to sign up.

Once we know where we’re going, we come by and take a look at what’s inside your blue boxes and green bin early in the morning before they’re picked up.

We check for food scraps in your green bins and at least two blue boxes that are sorted right – one for paper and cardboard and one for bottles, cans and jars.

We look to see that the right stuff is in the right bin and that there isn’t any stuff in the wrong bin.
• The “right stuff in the right bin” is what we call “capture rate”. For example, if you have 10 pop cans, we’re looking to see that all 10 pop cans are in your blue box with your bottles, jars and other cans. If some of them are in a different bin, then you have a lower capture rate.
• When you make a mistake by putting “stuff in the wrong bin” we call it “contamination”. For example, if you put paper coffee cups in one of your blue boxes (where they don’t go), your blue box contaminated. Paper coffee cups go in your green bin.

You will not win a gold box if you:
• Don’t have your blue box(es) out
• Don’t have your green bin out
• Have more than one bag / can of garbage out
• Have plastic, glass or metal in your green bin
• Mix your papers and cardboard with your plastic bottles, glass jars and metal cans
• Have something really strange in your blue box like a vacuum cleaner or basketball
• Put out more yard waste than it says you can on your pick up schedule
• Have rocks, sod, soil or tree stumps in with your yard waste

Each house is allowed 3 minor infractions, so if everything looks good but if there are a couple mistakes we circle the infraction on the resident letter.

You have to be really good at recycling to win a gold box but you don’t have to be perfect. You may still win a gold box if you made a couple mistakes. A letter will come with your gold box to tell you if you:
• Left the lids on your bottles, cans and jars. (They should be taken off.)
• Put crinkly plastic (like candy wrappers and chip bags) in one of your blue boxes. (Crinkly plastic is garbage.)
• Put your plastic bags in one of your blue boxes without stuffing them in a bag so they don’t blow around.
• Bagged your bottles, cans and jars. (They should be loose in your blue box.)
• Put juice cartons, milk cartons and drinking boxes in with your paper and cardboard. (They go in with your bottles, cans and jars.)
• Bagged your paper and cardboard. (They should be loose in your blue box. Stack them vertically (up-and-down) instead of lying flat so that they don’t blow away.)
• Put paper coffee cups and fast food drink cups in one of your blue boxes. (They should be in your green bin.)
• Left a bungee cord or brick on the lid of your green bin. (They should be taken off.)
• Put paper towels in one of your blue boxes. (They go in your green bin.)
• Put hard, molded plastic in one of your blue boxes. (It goes in the garbage.)
You can make up to 3 of these mistakes and still win a gold box. We call this the “3 strike rule.” Each mistake counts as 1 “strike.” If you make the same mistake more than once, it still counts as 1 “strike.”

For example, if you put 1 paper coffee cup in with your bottles, cans and jars and 1 paper towel in with your paper and cardboard, you have made 2 different mistakes and will get 2 “strikes.” However, if you put 12 paper coffee cups in with your bottles, cans and jars and 10 paper towels in with your paper and cardboard, it is the same 2 mistakes and you will get 2 “strikes.”

Once we’ve looked through everything and find out that you’re a winner, we’ll put a gold box up near your front door or side door or garage with a letter that explains how you did.

We’re hoping to find at least 100 gold box winners in every Ward each year.

I won a gold box. What should I do with it?
Use it every week! Use it just like you use your blue boxes. The only difference is that it is yellow instead of blue. Put your paper and cardboard in it OR put your bottles, cans and jars in it.

Label your Gold Box with one of your FREE Mabel’s Labels Curbside Labels so people will know it’s yours – not everyone will win one, but everyone wants one!

A gold box in front of your house each week proves that you are a “super recycler” and a role model for others to follow.