Be a 3R Ambassador

The Rs in the 3R Ambassador Program stands for Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. There are more than three though, there’s also repair, repurpose, revitalize, regift…you get the idea. The 3R Ambassador Program is both an education and volunteer program designed for residents of multi-unit residential buildings (MURBs) as part of stakeholder outreach at the city’s Solid Waste Management Services.

It is a relatively low time commitment and reviews waste management issues specific to Toronto’s services and capabilities, as well as resources available to the public including Toronto’s Waste Wizard site and its companion downloadable app with information on how to properly sort and dispose of over 2,500 items.

Before tossing that old used up lipstick out, if you pull out the Waste Wizard app you might be surprised to find out that it shouldn’t go in the trash or the blue bin—it’s household hazardous waste (HHW) that should be disposed of at a Community Environment Day location near you. For residential buildings, the property manager is responsible for scheduling the free pick-up through the City’s Toxic Taxi by calling 311— though not all of property managers are very familiar with the program.

At the Tower, the 3R Ambassador worked with the property manager to establish a site in the building where eligible types of HHW could be periodically collected from residents. For example, in March 2024 we collected 12kg of old batteries, light bulbs and nail polishes and during a subsequent collection of the same items we collected almost 25kg, more than twice as much! It’s hard to tell whether residents contributed more because they stopped throwing them out in the garbage or stopped properly disposing them at appropriate collection sites in the city, but we could tell that there was a demand for the convenience when residents began asking when the next collection would be happening.

Note: the pickup load must be at least 10 kg of qualifying HHW, but less than 50 kg (see website for other applicable rules).