|
|
|
- Thread starter dob467
- Start date
spider
Senior Member
Curious transition to new garbage bin pick up style
Found myself in the area North of Ellesmere Road and East of Victoria Park on garbage pick up day. A few small and medium bins were set out but most people still used green bags. The truck was a rear loader with the little lift attachment and separate compartments for kitchen waste (little green bins) and garbage.
The pick up guy didn't load the small bins on the lift, he just reached in and grabbed the bag inside the bin and chucked it into the truck, the medium bins didn't go on the lift either, he just picked them up and dumped them into the truck. Was the lift inoperable or could the guy just not be bothered to use it?
The crew was also collecting the kitchen waste but didn't bother to separate it from the garbage, that's right, just mix it all up together, one bin goes in the left side of the truck, the next in the right side.
Seems we wasted a lot of money on equipment and containers if this M.O. is wide spread
Found myself in the area North of Ellesmere Road and East of Victoria Park on garbage pick up day. A few small and medium bins were set out but most people still used green bags. The truck was a rear loader with the little lift attachment and separate compartments for kitchen waste (little green bins) and garbage.
The pick up guy didn't load the small bins on the lift, he just reached in and grabbed the bag inside the bin and chucked it into the truck, the medium bins didn't go on the lift either, he just picked them up and dumped them into the truck. Was the lift inoperable or could the guy just not be bothered to use it?
The crew was also collecting the kitchen waste but didn't bother to separate it from the garbage, that's right, just mix it all up together, one bin goes in the left side of the truck, the next in the right side.
Seems we wasted a lot of money on equipment and containers if this M.O. is wide spread
Skeezix
Senior Member
Well, no - it doesn't get all mixed-up together. The green bin waste goes in one side of the truck, and the garbage/recycling (depending on the week) goes in the other side - and the two are kept separate.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
On the topic of the new garbage bins, I've read that you can get the free smallest version and then cut out the false bottom to give yourself a bin equal in volume to the "fee charged" medium size. Do you think the garbagemen would refuse to pick it up?
Skeezix
Senior Member
I have to think that the City is not going to let that scheme go too long. Rather than the garbagemen refusing to pick it up, I suspect one will get an updated bill from the City, reclassifying your garbage bin from small to medium.
spider
Senior Member
Mixed up together
Skeezix said,
I am aware of the split compartments on the truck and their purpose, the point is the worker was tossing one green bin in the left side of the truck and another in the opposite side depending on which side of the street he picked it up on. The street was worked in one pass picking up on both sides rather than the normal two passes.
Skeezix said,
I am aware of the split compartments on the truck and their purpose, the point is the worker was tossing one green bin in the left side of the truck and another in the opposite side depending on which side of the street he picked it up on. The street was worked in one pass picking up on both sides rather than the normal two passes.
Skeezix
Senior Member
That's not what came across from your initial post, so thanks for the clarification. I'd like to think I would have called the city with the truck number (do garbage trucks have identifier numbers? -- license plate numbers, I suppose), because that's outrageous. Why bother sorting if a lazy garbageman is going to simply throw it all in the same compartment.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
Looks like the city is going to try to stop the scourge of bin divers rolling noisily up and down our streets throughout the night and early mornings.
Toronto plans crackdown on blue-box scavengers
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080807.RECYCLE07/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/
However, the bin divers could be avoided if everyone just stopped putting redeemable items in their blue bins.
Toronto plans crackdown on blue-box scavengers
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080807.RECYCLE07/TPStory/TPNational/Ontario/
However, the bin divers could be avoided if everyone just stopped putting redeemable items in their blue bins.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Do what I do and put the bottles in first, underneath the newsprint and cardboard, when you feed Big Blue at the curb. I usually do the deed around midnight ... and make a helluva racket tipping all the little Jamaican ginger beer bottles in!
The pickers, who aren't harming anyone, are already quite discouraged by the bigger bins.
The pickers, who aren't harming anyone, are already quite discouraged by the bigger bins.
nfitz
Superstar
This seems to target other things, such as fridges, etc. Why I can see the city wants more money, I honestly don't care who takes the fridge or beer bottles from in front of my house.
dob467
Active Member
I don't see the problem with "scavengers." At our place, 2 old Chinese women come by competing to be the first to get our glass bottles and cans. Instead of making it harder for them to find the bottles and cans, we place them seperately in our old recycling blue box. The women clean out the box and we then take it in, while our recycling stays outside in the clear bags for pick up. No mess, no noise.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
I don't think they even bother upending or diving into the bins, which are fairly deep and difficult to reach into, if they see paper and cardboard inside when they flip open the lid.
I feel sorry for these people - it can't be much of a life. I particularly wonder what - or who - makes the elderly Chinese man and woman in my neighbourhood do this.
Perhaps they should form a union? Still, someone will no doubt argue that, from a macro-economic point of view, they're all better off earning what market forces dictate.
I feel sorry for these people - it can't be much of a life. I particularly wonder what - or who - makes the elderly Chinese man and woman in my neighbourhood do this.
Perhaps they should form a union? Still, someone will no doubt argue that, from a macro-economic point of view, they're all better off earning what market forces dictate.
Chris84
New Member
Bag it Back
In Toronto’s 2008/2009 recycling calendar there is a full page ad paid for by the Government of Ontario encouraging people to bring their beer, wine and liquor containers back to The Beer Store.
“Remember: Keep Bagging it Back for the Environment.
Talk about a return on your deposit.â€
That’s what the scavengers are doing for those who can’t be bothered to do it themselves.
The Globe article states the City has to pay $12.50/tonne to get rid of the glass it collects. So doesn’t the scavenging of glass bottles save the city money?
Unless the city was to sort these bottles out and return them for a deposit refund.
I am guessing that the tetra containers also cost the city to recycle.
The aluminum beer cans are worth $2,000.00/tonne according to the article so I guess this is where the city is losing money to the scavengers. Then again the city’s own recycling calendars have that full page ad telling people to take the beer cans back to the beer store. I would think that the 10 cent deposit on beer cans is more than the scrap value of the can. So putting your beer can in the blue bin supports the city and lets The Beer Store or LCBO keep your deposit.
This morning I put out my new blue bin and my old blue box. The blue box was filled with deposit beer, wine and liquor bottles from my tenants. I thought the $5 worth of pre-sorted containers would be appreciated by a local scavenger but I guess they needed something to carry them in so I lost my blue box.
In Toronto’s 2008/2009 recycling calendar there is a full page ad paid for by the Government of Ontario encouraging people to bring their beer, wine and liquor containers back to The Beer Store.
“Remember: Keep Bagging it Back for the Environment.
Talk about a return on your deposit.â€
That’s what the scavengers are doing for those who can’t be bothered to do it themselves.
The Globe article states the City has to pay $12.50/tonne to get rid of the glass it collects. So doesn’t the scavenging of glass bottles save the city money?
Unless the city was to sort these bottles out and return them for a deposit refund.
I am guessing that the tetra containers also cost the city to recycle.
The aluminum beer cans are worth $2,000.00/tonne according to the article so I guess this is where the city is losing money to the scavengers. Then again the city’s own recycling calendars have that full page ad telling people to take the beer cans back to the beer store. I would think that the 10 cent deposit on beer cans is more than the scrap value of the can. So putting your beer can in the blue bin supports the city and lets The Beer Store or LCBO keep your deposit.
This morning I put out my new blue bin and my old blue box. The blue box was filled with deposit beer, wine and liquor bottles from my tenants. I thought the $5 worth of pre-sorted containers would be appreciated by a local scavenger but I guess they needed something to carry them in so I lost my blue box.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
They're harming the economic viability of the recycling model. It's akin to someone taking the better donated items from a Goodwill bin, leaving the less valuable items behind; sure it's garbage to you, but Goodwill, or the city, depends on the more valuable items to help cover the cost of the operation.
Urban Shocker
Doyenne
Though if, as Chris84 suggests, it actually costs the city money to get rid of all the glass it collects from lazy homeowners who won't return their own recyclables for a refund, then the pickers are doing all taxpayers a service.