75,000 Toronto Residents Still Without Garbage Bins
Posted October 29, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As if paying the city to take away your garbage wasn’t painful enough, there’s a new wrinkle in the controversial plan.
The pay-as-you-throw program launches November 1, and 75,000 residents are still without their grey bins (pictured).
The city didn’t expect so many people to order the medium-sized bin and there is a backlog at the manufacturer.
“We’ve delivered about 425,000 of them but we are behind schedule…85 per cent of the residents of Toronto have already got their orders, but 15 per cent haven’t,” admitted councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker on CityOnline.
“The city’s had 16 months to get in place a new program,” countered Kevin Gaudet of the Ontario Taxpayers Federation.
As a temporary measure, the City is mailing out pink tags to the affected homeowners. Bags with a pink tag will be picked up by collection crews. When the bins come in, the tags are no longer valid – they expire January 31.
But some haven’t received them yet, and they’re worried they might have to pay for the delay.
“I’m having my fingers crossed I’ll actually receive them by tomorrow,” Qi Lou hopes.
She hasn’t received the new receptacle, or the tags. If you’re in the same boat, you need to call 416-338-BINS(2467) and let Toronto know about the predicament. You won’t be penalized financially.
“To say that it’s running well would be a ridiculous overstatement. It’s a mess at best and the reason I think people are extremely frustrated is they see their costs of living going up…yet they see the quality of service like this being implemented isn’t coming in well and that frustrates people,” Gaudet argued.
And there are reports that even the phone line are jammed.
“It’s occupied morning, noon and night. We cannot get through,” fumed Brian. He was so upset he showed up at City Hall.
Sound confusing? Once the bins arrive, there’s one more set of red tape to get through – a yellow tag.
They function as a sort of “get out of jail free” card for rare extra trash. Each home will receive five of them in the mail, and they can be used until the end of 2009. It may come in handy for residents who don’t normally produce a lot of garbage, but may have excess waste during the holidays or after a move.
City officials expect to get all the bins delivered by the end of January.
And if you’re thinking of hiding your trash in your recycle bin or in a public receptacle, think again – you could face fines up to $300.
Toronto isn’t the only city that has a garbage limit. In Vaughan, trash is collected every other week and there’s a three-bag maximum. Just like the Big Smoke, residents there pony up for extra waste and have to buy special tags if they exceed the limit.
Find out more about the pink tags
Find out more about the grey bin program
Small bin (1 bag)
Old price: $209
New price: $199
Medium bin (1.5 bags)
Old price: $250
New price: $248
Large bin (3 bags)
Old price: $310
New price: $342
Extra-large bin (4.5 bags)
Old price: $360
New price: $399
