Winnipeg households looking to replace garbage carts can wait up to 5 weeks
Posted January 21, 2026 5:08 pm.
Last Updated January 21, 2026 6:45 pm.
Winnipeg households are dealing with soaring wait times for garbage bin replacement, and according to the City, residents could be waiting up to five weeks.
Chris Bachewich lives in Winnipeg’s north end neighbourhood. He says his garbage cart has been damaged for some time now. Seeing the wait his neighbours are going through, Bachewich is hesitant to submit the request to 311.
“That would not be fun at all, piling up my garbage. I imagine that’s what the people down the street have a problem with, cause they don’t have a garbage bin right now, I see. Their garbage is piling up,” said Bachewich.
Michael Gorsichuk, manager with the city’s solid waste services, says the issue started in October of 2025. The problem got worse in December due to statutory holidays and staffing issues.
He says waste collection carts were rolled out in 2012, and now most households have carts that are long overdue to be replaced.
“Currently, we are looking at a backlog of 2,100 residential dwellings that are awaiting the replacement of garbage carts and recycling carts,” Gordichuk explained.
“Most of the carts in our system, or a good majority of them, are past their life expectancy. And it’s not that we were not anticipating it.”
Once the claim for the new cart is submitted, the customer is automatically enrolled in the list for manual collection.
According to the city, the wait time for the delivery is 25 business days on average, but the delays will not disrupt the deliveries for some households.
“On average, about ten days to get your carts, once they’ve set up their water bill in the system. So there is no impact to people moving into new homes as they are prioritized,” said Gordichuk.
Gordichuk says the average cost of garbage cart replacement is a hundred dollars. With over 2,000 households waiting for the services, the authority will take time to get back on track for deliveries.
“We anticipate that within the next couple of months we should have that backlog cleared up, and also we will maintain our normal service levels at that time,” Gordichuk explained.
