A Toronto Rain Barrel Cost $8.95 vs $129 at Home Depot

Toronto sold rain barrels for $8.95 plus tax in 2026, with a downspout diverter for $1.00 plus tax and free delivery. Both rounds sold out, and the City paid for the program as a one-year pilot, so there's no 2027 date to plan around yet. We checked all 25 GTA municipalities on September 28, 2026. Eight ran their own rain barrel program this year, with a price, discount, rebate or free barrel, and two of those were still open: King Township sells year round at $75.00 plus HST, and Brock gives barrels away after a free home assessment. There's also a free barrel that no city runs. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) lets you pick one as your free incentive after a free home consultation. It's open to everyone in Peel, and to people in detached, semi-detached and town homes across Toronto and parts of York and Durham regions, while supplies last. Composters are easier to get. In 21 of the 25, the city or region sells one, from $22.00 with taxes included in Peel to $90.00 plus HST in Whitchurch-Stouffville.

What Toronto sold in 2026

The City's Rain Barrel Savings Program sold one package per property in its second round (the first round allowed two barrels per household). The package was a rain barrel at $8.95 plus tax and a downspout diverter at $1.00 plus tax, both delivered free. A downspout diverter is a fitting cut into the downspout. It fills the barrel through a hose, then sends the water back down the pipe once the barrel is full.

Any Toronto property with a postal code starting with M could order. Tenants had to confirm that the owner agreed. Enviro World Corp. ran the orders for the City, and its installation sheet shows the barrel is its FreeGarden RAIN model.

Demand swamped it. The first batch sold out in 9 hours, according to the Mayor's letter of June 2, 2026. The letter asked Council for $238,249 more, and for a limit of one barrel per household instead of two. A second round opened online on July 23, 2026, as a councillor's event page shows, with that one-barrel limit. The City says overwhelming demand caused technical difficulties on the vendor's website that day, and orders could not be processed. Sales reopened on July 28 at 2 p.m., as the vendor's product page told buyers. Properties that bought in round one couldn't buy again. Round two sold out too.

Nothing is posted about next year. The City's 2026 budget notes describe a "one-year pilot program". The program page says only that it's sold out, and it points you to the City's Live Green News newsletter for "future program opportunities".

Toronto still has a composter fee, but no sale page we could find

By-law 1472-2025, in force since January 1, 2026, sets $20.73 to buy a composter and $7.79 to deliver one. Yet none of the City's waste pages we read offers one for sale. The Community Environment Days that run April to September sell kitchen containers at $7 each, cash only, and hand out free compost, two bags per household.

So ask 311 whether the by-law price is still on offer before you buy elsewhere. Two programs say outright that they sell outside their own town: King's, to anyone, and Richmond Hill's spring composter pre-order, to any York Region resident.

Which GTA municipalities ran rain barrel programs in 2026

Eight of the 25 municipalities ran a program of their own this year, with a price, a discount, a rebate or a free barrel.

• Richmond Hill's 2026 Healthy Yards guide charged $61.44 plus HST for a 208-litre barrel, for Richmond Hill residents only, limit two per household. It was a spring pre-order with a drive-thru pickup on May 30, and that sale has ended.
• King charges $75.00 plus HST for a FreeGarden RAIN barrel on its Green Yards page, and it sells year round. The page says residents and non-residents can buy. You order on the Township's online form and pick up at a King facility.
• Newmarket and Aurora both charged $79.95 through Enviro World, delivered to your door. Newmarket's flyer took orders April 1 to April 26, 2026 and called the barrel a "$120 value". Aurora's sale ran March 23 to May 1, 2026. Both are closed, and Newmarket says to check back in spring 2027.
• Brock gives a barrel away. Residents who complete a free Weather-ready home assessment, or who talk to a Durham Greener Homes coach, get one while supplies last.
• Whitby residents could claim up to $1,000 back on one upgrade line covering downspout disconnection and redirection and a rain barrel with a diverter, through the Whitby Weather-ready rebate that the Town lists. The project had to cost at least $500 and be finished in 2026. The rebate is now fully subscribed.
• Clarington residents inside the Ganaraska Region Conservation Authority's area got $25 off each barrel in its 2026 sale, limit four per household. A conservation authority is a public agency that manages a watershed, the land that drains into one river system. That sale closed on June 1.

Two more point you to a charity sale. Caledon links to ecoCaledon, which says its barrels are sold at Davis Feed and Farm Supply and prints no price. Pickering links to RainBarrel.ca's list of fundraising sales.

Five send you to a store. Markham names Home Depot, RONA and Home Hardware, and suggests a barrel that holds at least 200 litres. Halton Region tells Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills residents to buy from "an online/local retailer".

The other 10 showed no program of their own on the pages we read: Mississauga, Brampton, Vaughan, Whitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury, Georgina, Ajax, Oshawa, Scugog and Uxbridge. Three of them point you to TRCA instead: Mississauga, Brampton and Vaughan. Brampton adds one detail on its Rain Ready Homes page: a rain barrel on a single residential home earns no credit on the City's stormwater charge.

The free barrel no city runs

TRCA runs a free Climate Ready Homes consultation of about 60 minutes. Afterwards you pick one free incentive, and a rain barrel is one choice. Incentives go first come, first served while supplies last, and consultations per neighbourhood are limited.

It's open to anyone in a detached, semi-detached or townhouse home within TRCA's area, and the page says all Peel Region residents are eligible. TRCA's area takes in all of Toronto, Markham and Vaughan, plus parts of other York Region and Durham Region municipalities. Durham Greener Homes points its TRCA-area residents to the same offer.

Composters: your region usually sells them

In most of the 905, composters are a regional job, and the prices are low.

• Peel sells a 300-litre bin for $22.00, taxes included, at its Fewster, Heart Lake and Bolton recycling centres. That covers Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon. The catch is the season: Peel sells them April to June while quantities last, so this year's window has closed.
• Halton sells them for $25 each at the Halton Waste Management Site on Bronte Road in Oakville, limit two per household. Call 311 first to check stock.
• Durham sells a 33-inch cube for $30 to all eight of its municipalities. You order online with home delivery in up to 10 business days, or call 311. The Whitby sales office is temporarily closed.

York Region's own composter sale has ended, so each York Region town sets its own price. Vaughan charges $23 plus HST, delivered. Newmarket charges $33.65, and King $45.00 plus HST. Richmond Hill still has a limited supply at $46.25 plus HST by email. Aurora charges $50. Whitchurch-Stouffville charges $90.00 plus HST, delivery included, under its 2026 fees by-law. The table above shows how each one sells.

Markham, East Gwillimbury and Georgina don't list a composter on their waste pages. Markham's green bin page links to the York Region page, which says the sale is over. Residents there can pre-order a $46.25 plus HST composter in Richmond Hill's spring sale, which is open to any York Region resident.

These prices don't share one tax basis, so compare with care. Only Peel's $22.00 says taxes are included. Vaughan, King, Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville add HST on top. Halton, Durham, Newmarket and Aurora print a price and don't say either way. Even so, Peel's $22.00 is the lowest composter price on sale in the GTA, because every other sale price is at least that much before any tax. Peel stops selling it in June, though, so it isn't available again until next spring.

What the same items cost in a store

Sheridan Nurseries, a GTA garden centre chain, sells a 39-gallon barrel for $129.99. Newmarket's own flyer valued its $79.95 barrel at $120. Home Depot lists the same FreeGarden RAIN model that Toronto and King sold, and its price is in the table below with the other 208-litre listings. They sit close to Sheridan's price.

Charity truckload sales, where a supplier ships a full truck of barrels for one pickup day to benefit a local group, cost less. RainBarrel.ca's sale for Sustainable Stouffville on July 4, 2026 sold a black 220-litre barrel for $65.00, plus $10 per barrel for home delivery.

The diverter is where Toronto's deal was widest. The City charged $1.00 plus tax. The same Stouffville fundraiser listed its downspout diverter at $40.00.

Store prices are what each page printed on September 28, 2026, and a store can change them any day. Only Sheridan's page says tax is added at checkout. The others don't say.

Toronto Water's rules for the downspout

In Toronto, what happens to your roof water is a legal matter. Every property owner must keep downspouts disconnected from the City's sewer under Municipal Code Chapter 681, section 681-11S. The exception is an exemption the City grants when disconnecting would be hazardous or isn't technically possible. The City's Mandatory Downspout Disconnection page suggests a rain barrel to catch that water. It also sets out what to watch:

• Water must flow away from your foundation.
• It can't damage a neighbour's property or run onto a driveway or City sidewalk.
• Take the barrel off in winter so it doesn't freeze and break. Then add an extension to the downspout so water still drains away from the house.

Mississauga gives a distance: send the overflow at least 2 metres, or 6 feet, from the foundation.

Disconnection costs money if you hire it out. Toronto pays back up to $500 of the labour and materials for homeowners who are 65 or older, 50 or older and on certain pensions or federal benefits, or receiving disability benefits. The household income has to be $50,000 or less, and you apply within one year of the work. Disconnected downspouts are also a condition of Toronto's basement flooding subsidy, though that subsidy program won't pay for the disconnection itself.