City of Toronto asking residents to PAY $$$ for garbage pickup

The city is targeting 70% waste diversion from landfill by 2010. To help us get there, every house in Toronto will receive a new recycling blue bin to replace the current blue/grey boxes. There is no cost for the new recycling blue bin and each household gets to choose from a small to xlarge. You must use your new blue bin to receive collection service

You'll also be getting a new garbage bin in 2008...note when selecting the size of the garbage bin please keep in mind the ANNUAL FEE associate with it;

small 1 bag (free),
med 1.5 bags ($41/year),
large 3 bags ($101),
x-large 6 bags ($141).

I think that they are sending out the recycle bins/garbage bins in phases, starting with Scarborough this fall.

Any Thoughts? Don't you think that garbage pickup should be covered under our municipal property taxes or is it good that we switched to this pay per bag system? What bin size will you be choosing?

Here is the website to www.toronto.ca/target70

Sounds like a good deal for people who live in condo's :p

for the new garbage bin, it's only an estimate, it's not final yet. they will ask again when the details of the program has been finalized.

i chose medium~ but when the details come out, might choose small instead. just have to do a better job of sorting out garbage at home.

can we assume a drop in property taxes, now that garbage becomes something paid for separately?

Paying for garbage is a good thing, it gives people some motivation to stop wasting and consider what to throw out/ what to buy.

I've done a study on Toronto's garbage, and about 2000 tonnes a day is generated and trucked away to michigan for the most part right now. However it will be trucked away to london in the near future. So that in itself costs money for trucking things to transfer stations. Mind you, landfilling is the worst possible answer for dealing with garbage. Sure dumping it is cheap, but maintaining it later on is quite expensive as it can easily require maintenance for up to 25 years. Garbage generates alot of pollutants that you wouldnt think mattered, as in those CFL's everyone is buying... It's estimated that 5 kg? maybe 5 tonnes, i cant remember but probably more realistic, per year of mercury is generated just from the disposal of those. Theres also the incredible amount of CO2 generated from decomposition of things and incineration of things. I think in Ontario the limit for an industrial process is 100 million tonnes of generated CO2.

Garbage is basically useless as a fuel, the only way landfills/incinerators make money from burning garbage is to charge a tipping fee. Right now the tipping fee to Michigan is about 77$/tonne of garbage from the transfer station. When Michigan closes its border to our trash, it'll still cost about 70$/tonne to landfill in london.

All in all, 100% diversion is very hard and costly, to the city and the residents.

Originally Posted by sketchED

The city is targeting 70% waste diversion from landfill by 2010. To help us get there, every house in Toronto will receive a new recycling blue bin to replace the current blue/grey boxes. There is no cost for the new recycling blue bin and each household gets to choose from a small to xlarge. You must use your new blue bin to receive collection service

You'll also be getting a new garbage bin in 2008...note when selecting the size of the garbage bin please keep in mind the ANNUAL FEE associate with it;

small 1 bag (free),
med 1.5 bags ($41/year),
large 3 bags ($101),
x-large 6 bags ($141).

I think that they are sending out the recycle bins/garbage bins in phases, starting with Scarborough this fall.

Any Thoughts? Don't you think that garbage pickup should be covered under our municipal property taxes or is it good that we switched to this pay per bag system? What bin size will you be choosing?

Here is the website to www.toronto.ca/target70

This sounds fair enough to me. Our city has blue and grey bin pickup, and me and my wife create a MAX of 0.5 bags of garbage a week. If we had an outdoor compost that would likely drop to 1/4 a bag. Sure when we have 1-2 kids that will go up but I would not think by more than 50%.

If you recycle properly you have next to no garbage. Almost everything you throw away is recyclable. The whole point of doing this is to discourage lazy people from not using the bins. I know around here we have blue/grey bin pickup and also free garbage pickup, and you would not believe the amount of recyclable stuff I see people throw in the trash just cause they're too lazy to think about what box to p ut it in.

Originally Posted by Choosy

Paying for garbage is a good thing, it gives people some motivation to stop wasting and consider what to throw out/ what to buy.

Agreed.

In fact, we should go one step further and make people pay for over use of healthcare. It gives some people motivation to stop harming themselves with cigarettes, alcohol or dangerous sports.

Originally Posted by brunes

This sounds fair enough to me. Our city has blue and grey bin pickup, and me and my wife create a MAX of 0.5 bags of garbage a week. If we had an outdoor compost that would likely drop to 1/4 a bag. Sure when we have 1-2 kids that will go up but I would not think by more than 50%.

If you recycle properly you have next to no garbage. Almost everything you throw away is recyclable. The whole point of doing this is to discourage lazy people from not using the bins. I know around here we have blue/grey bin pickup and also free garbage pickup, and you would not believe the amount of recyclable stuff I see people throw in the trash just cause they're too lazy to think about what box to p ut it in.

I totally agree. I even take the extra step to accumulate stuff like styrofoam and plastic bags to recycle later en masse.

Anyone else think that charging per bag would encourage cheapskates and contractors to dump illegally? I see this all too many times under the Allen Rd / Wilson Heights exit hydro fields.

I am completely fine with it....

We already use a huge blue coloured garbage bin as our recycling bin....All I ask for is that we get collection every week for recycling.

We'd have the large recycling, small garbage and the green bin. This is more than sufficient for a family of 3 with two cats.

and get over with the property tax...we already pay next to nothing here in Toronto...my 500-600k house pays only 3600 a year...that is nothing.

Originally Posted by Choosy

Garbage is basically useless as a fuel...

There is always the possibility of methane farming from landfills..

As for the pricing, I'd assume legally the city would have to remove garbage removal from property taxes.

I'm all for the idea--everyone should pay their fair share of the service depending on how much they use it.

What wasn't clear in the pamphlet is what to do if we have a higher than normal garbage load during the year. Christmas time or during small renovations are good examples...We usually have 1 garbage bag a week, but that can go up as high as 3 or 4 on special occasions. Will there be prepaid bags available like the ones businesses use for pickup?

I'm also be worried about illegal dumping or people mixing garbage in with their organic green bin waste to get around the 1 bin rule...

http://www.toronto.ca/target70/pdf/b...dimensions.pdf

there is the information, just order 1 med blue bin and 1 large garbage bin

Originally Posted by glemlin

There is always the possibility of methane farming from landfills..

As for the pricing, I'd assume legally the city would have to remove garbage removal from property taxes.

Why would you make that assumption. There is no reason for them to remove from property taxes. Our minimal property taxes are not nearly sufficient to cover everything that the city offers...

...I have no problem paying for services I get...but more importantly services that others get. It is wonderful that poorer areas get access to facilities and programs that otherwise they could not afford. If you don't like socialism, move out of the three major Canadian cities.

out west most cities have been charging for garbage pickup already for .... as long as most people can remember.