Big blue bin woes

Some Toronto residents using the city’s new blue recycling bins have some extra-large complaints. They say the new bins are oversized, awkward, unsightly and difficult to store — and they’re not looking forward to the next step in Toronto’s recycling campaign: big bins for wet garbage.

The city is now taking orders for new black garbage bins — part of a plan to reduce overall waste by 70%. Households must pick a size, and each size has a price. So, the more you throw away, the higher the fee.

The bins themselves act as a measure to help inspectors track who tosses how much.

“We want to move towards this system for a couple of reasons,” said Rob Orpin, the city’s director of Toronto solid waste management collections operations. “One, it measures obviously how much you put out, and the second one is for our ability to start automating the system. We’re moving into the 21st century here now, and we want to make the system as cost-efficient as possible.”

Orpin admits the new black containers are just as cumbersome as the blue ones, but he says the city will try to work out the problems. “Some people — and I say some, a small amount — may not be able to use these bins because of storage issues. And we’ll work with them to overcome those issues.”

Orpin says if the bins aren’t working out, the city will even make housecalls. That way residents and the city can find a solution together. For more information, check out the garbage and recycling page at the city of Toronto’s website.

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