ANNEX: New blue bins cause headaches for downtown residents
As expected, growing pains have already started to emerge specifically in the some of Toronto's older downtown neighbourhoods such as the Annex and Parkdale, where tight streets, Victorian row houses and on-street parking are fairly common.
"The suburban areas are doing great but the challenge is the dense, downtown area where people are having storage issues," said Rob Orpin, the city's director of solid waste management. "Trinity-Spadina has posed the most challenge so far but we're working with the residents to solve the problems."
Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) Councillor Adam Vaughan said what works in suburban areas just doesn't make sense for the downtown core.
"People are beyond irritated. I've got an extraordinary amount of residential above retail in my ward and in many cases no alleys. (Waste management) is going to have to deal with pre-1900 downtown differently," he said, pointing to a pilot project already underway along Spadina Avenue between College and Queen streets that will survey residents on what they think is the best option for waste diversion in their community. The pilot, a partnership with the Chinatown Business Improvement Association, is looking at weekly pick up instead of twice-weekly yellow bag collection.
"Especially in Trinity-Bellwoods, there are a lot of challenges. We just need a bin and a pickup system that's designed for the downtown," he said.
Vaughan also said residents shouldn't give up their often-small porches and already limited outdoor spaces to store the new bins. Further, he wondered how residents are supposed to locate their bin amongst the more than 1,000 new bins in the Alexandra Park community housing development, which is near Spadina Avenue and Dundas Street.
He said that it's also not a question of the desire to recycle that is at hand.
"We have some of the most aggressive, innovative and happy people ready to do their part. These people will recycle at the drop of a hat," Vaughan said. "They're ready to work with the city and the city has to do its part."
Ward 19 (Trinity-Spadina) Councillor Joe Pantalone said residents should take the inconvenience into perspective.
"We as a community are not doing as good of a job as we could be doing to divert waste from landfills," he said, pointing to the city's current rate of 58 per cent waste diversion from homes and only 13 per cent rate from apartment buildings.
"That is not good enough for the City of Toronto. The goal is 70 per cent (waste diversion from landfills) by 2010."
Pantalone said residents have to put forth a little effort now, not five to 10 years from now when the city's waste management situation is dire.
"The city is implementing a system to address this issue. The environment cannot wait," he said.
"The fact that there are problems (with the new blue bins) was anticipated and is being dealt with. We're getting lots of phone calls and we're having meetings with people."
In the long run, Pantalone said the new automated collection of recyclables would cost less for taxpayers and be overall more efficient.
He also said that community-specific solutions are being found such as moving the pick up of recyclables to rear laneways like the trash collection.
"And bigger is not always better," he added, noting a lot of local residents are finding the large bins they ordered too cumbersome.
Residents have until November to exchange their bins without penalties for different sized ones that best suit their recycling needs and bin storage capacity.
People with major blue bin issues can also receive a visit from city works staff on a case-by-case basis to assist them in selecting the appropriate bin size or to come up with alternative solutions to the current bins being offered.
Over in Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth) the city is already looking into a pilot program for a smaller bin than the smallest one currently being offered. That bin will be available in the fall.
The city is introducing the new upright, wheeled blue bins in an effort to increase its waste diversion efforts as well as to render the collection of recyclables into a semi-automated form. The new bins will replace the city's current blue and grey bins.
The new blue bins are currently being introduced to residents living within the area bounded by Yonge Street to the east, Steeles Avenue to the north, the Humber River to the west and Lake Ontario to the south.
People with questions or comments about the new blue bin program should to visit www.toronto.ca/target70 or call 416-392-BINS (2467).
