Rocky start for privatized garbage collection in west Toronto

It hasn’t been a smooth rollout of Toronto’s new privatized garbage collection on the west side of the city, with some residents complaining about significant pickup delays.

Pickering-based Green for Life (GFL) took over trash collection between Yonge Street and the Humber River and from Steeles Avenue down to Lake Ontario — an area that includes some 165,000 homes.  The same company is responsible for garbage collection in Etobicoke.

The city has received nearly 1,000 complaints since GFL started its contract on Tuesday, according to John Harnum, the city’s general manager of solid waste management.

This week some trash has been picked up as late as 9:30 p.m.

“It’s almost been four days now and I’m hoping they will pick it up,” Bukky Aderinboia said. She lives in the Kensington Market area and trash is beginning to pile up in her local laneway.

Aderinboia said she understands the company is getting used to its new routes, but added “I’m just hoping they will do well. This is not very good at the moment.”

Harnum said about 900 complaints have been filed since Tuesday — 700 of them have been caught up. The remainder will be dealt with on Saturday so crews can “start fresh” next week.

“The majority of the complaints have been missed pickup,” Harnum said.

“The operators are new. The vehicles are new and there’s a lot of confusion on the routes. Every day is a different route.”

Contracting out garbage collection was one of Mayor Rob Ford’s key campaign promises. The privatized collection is expected to save the city $11 million a year.

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