[nfitz]

The lids can't be latched and I can't speak for other neighbouthoods, but the racoons in mine are quite happy to riffle throught the recycling in hopes of finding even a lick of food on the inside of a pizza or frozen food box.

I'm confused as to why the new blue-bin, that at least has a cover, is goign to be more prone to raccoons than the old blue bins - that we completely exposed.

I've never had much problem with raccoons in my blue bins - and I'm not really that careful about cleaning stuff I throw in there. It's the green bin that they'll toss around trying to crack it open.

 

[billonlogan]

In Cabbagetown they're letting homeowners keep using clear bags instead of the bin, based on approval of each homeowner's circumstances.

I hope that is the case for some of us in Riverdale.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I hope that is the case for some of us in Riverdale.

Pam McConnell was pushing the trash guys on this for her ward, so perhaps you need to push your local rep on your side of the Don. It might be a localized permission thing.

 

[BlueBehemoth]

We got our Blue Behemoth..

Nearly broke my arm maneuvering it off my front porch to the curb and it's only half full.

Please take special note of the instructions that are helpfully provided with your new Behemoth Bin:

- Place your Blue Bin a half-metre (approximately 2 feet) away from your Green Bin. There should be 3 metres (10 feet) of clearance above your Blue Bin.

- Do not place Blue Bins behind or on top of snow banks. Please make sure they are clearly visible and accessible.

- If you occasionally have overflow recycling, either keep the extra material and set it out in your Blue Bin at your next collection; or consider asking your neighbours if they have room in their Blue Bin.

My remarks on the new Behemoth Bins.

1. I don't have that much frontage on my lot to allow for 2 feet between the Green bin and the Behemoth bin because of a city-owned tree.

2. 10 feet of clearance above the Behemoth Bin?? So... who's responsible for cutting down the City-owned tree to allow for the 10 feet of clearance that is required here? I'm certain the City will not do it willingly and I doubt the garbage collectors will have their chainsaws along (Union rules, I'm sure). The city will probably charge me with cruelty to a living organism if I get my hands on a chainsaw and do the job myself. So... I should park my Behemoth bin in the middle of the road... no wait... the tree reaches out across the road too. (Yes, I have called the city and asked them to cut off branches - more than once but they only came by once and gave it a light trim and it took them three years to get around to doing that much after my initial request.)

3. "Do not place bins on top of snow banks". What temperate zone were they thinking we all live in when the geniuses at City Hall worked this one out? Again - that means the Behemoth Bin will be placed in the middle of the road -but only after 1/3 of that city-owned tree is cut down. Oh - never mind... the damn thing is so unmanagable and heavy I couldn't possibly wrestle it to the top of even a small snow bank - so I guess it has to be the middle of the road.

4. See my opening remark - this thing is a MONSTER. Where the heck are they expecting people to store them? Many of us in the downtown area do NOT have easy access to our back yards except through our houses. Do we just park it on the front postage-stamp-sized lawn and consider it a "Feature" instead of an EYESORE?? In my home, we kept our recycling bins on our small front porch. With the new Behemoth Bin on the front porch I can't even see out my front window. I'm middle aged, not overweight and generally in pretty good shape and even I had a very tough time wrestling this thing off my front porch and down to the curb - and it's only HALF FULL. I pity anyone who is elderly or even slightly infirm.

5. "Ask your neighbours if they have room in their Blue Bin". Umm.... correct me if I'm wrong... We get nasty notes, refusal to pick up recycling and possibly even fined if we put the wrong stuff in our Bins... so I'm supposed to allow my above-average-intelligence neighbours to dump their overflow into my Behemoth Bin? (Now, we all know that ALL of our neighbours are the above-average-intelligence type who *never* do anything to annoy or cause trouble for each other, right?) I can clearly see that my neighbour's new Behemoth bin is presently overflowing with all of the garbage bags full of what one assumes is supposed to be recyclable materials - you know, the stuff we're not supposed to be putting into garbage bags..

6. Those guys who go around picking through everyone's recycling bins in the middle of the night looking for refundable bottles or recyclable material that they can collect and turn in for money... What will they do with the Behemoth Bins? Turn the contents out onto the street, take what they want and then... collect the rest up and gently place it back into the Behemoth Bin so as not to disturb the area residents? Gee, I'm sure we all remember how quiet they were about rummaging through the old Blue boxes..

7. As for the City having no intention of collecting up all of the old Blue and Grey boxes they provided us with - I have an idea... We can all deliver them to City Hall and let THEM put them to other uses. Surely they can use them to store books, paper, use them as foot stools or stand on them to reach things stored on upper shelves. Or, maybe they'll just use them to store their toys in them.

Obviously I have some issues with the new Behemoth Bins... but there's not much point in my calling my local councillor to complain about it because I'm stuck with Sandra Bussin, the Heil-Miller clone. (Please don't credit me with the "Heil-Miller" remark - I have it on very good authority that's the name the staff at City Hall affectionately call him.)

I really, truly wish that someone with half a brain would run against him next election. I did not vote for him last time, nor did I vote for Bussin but the alternate choices were pretty weak. If only next time there was a real alternative and Miller-time could finally be over.

 

[Hydrogen]

Apparently the next version will be even larger - but motorized.

 

[BlueBehemoth]

"Larger, but motorized"

Right .. of course - And it must be either Solar powered electric or bio-diesel. And we'll all need to get a special BB1, 2 or 3 licence to operated it (depending on the size of your Bin). Blue Bin Registration, licence plates and annual stickers too - Which will have a special "Metro tax" levy just like any other carbon-emitting vehicle in the City of Toronto.

 

[nfitz]

My street received their monstrosities yesterday. They are Blue, huge and flimsy with a top section (not a lid) that doesn't close let alone latch.

Mine finally came. It's an extra-large, but many of my neighbours have a large, and they are similiar construction to mine.

They have a regular and substantial lid - just like I've seen on similiar wheeled blue bins for years. (in fact, it's quite similiar to a couple I've seen on a street nearby, which say "Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto" on them). They don't latch, but quite frankly, the lids are so big, I'd be surprised if any critters would be able to get in, if the lids were closed.

I'm not sure if some of the earlier bins were different then? But I'm just not seeing this complaint, now I have one.

The extra-large is big though. It will save a lot of space on the porch compared to the line of 4 bins that have been there previously - but it is quite high. Perhaps I will move the mail-box a bit higher so it will fit underneath - or else it will be blocking a window!

 

[TonyV]

Gawd. We got ours today. We are in a small Cabbagetown house. We don't know what in blazes we'll do with the new blue, it is so damned big. We face the impossible task of finding a way to get it through the house, and park it somewhere... the whole nine yards, it's all been mentioned here already.

I have a good mind to ignore it and start throwing stuff out in the 'bage again, or, to take this behemoth to useless Pam McConnell's office and leave it there, or maybe just park it in N.P.Square. I am thoroughly disgusted. We did well with the former ones ... a case of fixing something that weren't broke.

I could just leave it on the curb and ignore it, and let whatever consequences come. I am thoroughly put off with this turn of events.

 

[Hydrogen]

Right .. of course - And it must be either Solar powered electric or bio-diesel. And we'll all need to get a special BB1, 2 or 3 licence to operated it (depending on the size of your Bin). Blue Bin Registration, licence plates and annual stickers too - Which will have a special "Metro tax" levy just like any other carbon-emitting vehicle in the City of Toronto.

You are so onto it.

Revenue streams forever.

 

[egotrippin]

We got ours, it's huge, but I'm pretty indifferent. Everyone on our street leaves all their bins out front anyway, as it's a narrow lane type street. There are really no places to store any bins inside the house, save for under-counter types. They are a bit silly, yes, but I think getting so worked up over them (*coughBlueBehemoth*) is easily as silly.

fake edit: I'm pretty sure we got the "large" size. I can't imagine the extra-large.

 

[nfitz]

We got ours, it's huge, but I'm pretty indifferent. Everyone on our street leaves all their bins out front anyway, as it's a narrow lane type street. There are really no places to store any bins inside the house, save for under-counter types. They are a bit silly, yes, but I think getting so worked up over them (*coughBlueBehemoth*) is easily as silly.

fake edit: I'm pretty sure we got the "large" size. I can't imagine the extra-large.

Large is 240 Litres (which is equivalent to 4 regular sized, or 3 of the larger blue boxes). Extra-large is 360 L. I'd think you could pretty much put a full-size person crouched down in an extra-large, which is what I have. Perhaps this is an attempt to deal with the lack of homeless beds for cold winter nights? :0

 

[Urban Shocker]

I got mine this morning. Lawks! So big!

 

[BlueBehemoth]

Is it possible for you downtowners to coordinate with your neighbours so that 3 households dump their recyclables in one bin?

So when one of the three downtowners on a single bin decides to toss a bunch of non-recyclable material into our Behemoth Bin -- which one of the three does the City Garbage Investigator fine? ** Yes, they really do have City staff going around picking through the bins looking for people who are not following the "rules". A friend of mine is a JP and he was furious when a bunch of these cases landed in his court. Furious at the Garbage Picking City inspectors that is..

Your Municipal Tax Dollars at Work...

 

[BlueBehemoth]

If they are going to lift these all into the truck mechanically - how long is that going to add to pick-up? I'd think it would take twice as long to mechanically lift up the bin to the truck, than the guy currently takes to simply toss the contents in. Less breaks necessary perhaps ...

Our first pickup was this past Tuesday. The idea that was shopped to us was that ONE guy in a truck could handle the job.

The truth is -- exactly the same as freakin' before...

TWO guys. One to go around and pull the bins out from between the parked cars or out from under the trees or whatever is blocking the required 3 meter (10 ft.) overhead and .5 meter (2 ft.) sideways clearance so the guy in the Truck can pick up the bin with the lift arm, dump the contents and put it back on the ground. The guy walking behind the truck now has to put the empty bin back where he got it. (Being careful to block the sidewalk with it just as they used to when they tossed the blue boxes and garbage bins back -- It's part of the job description and the first thing they cover in the job-training, I believe..)

So.. I DO NOT SEE ANY COST SAVINGS HERE.

"Heil-Miller" has just spent - what, 56 million dollars and counting on this moronic ill-conceived plan?

We could have just been required to buy the bio-degradable plastic bags for recycling ourselves and then it really would have been a pay-as-you-use system and NO ONE would have had a problem with storage or size of bins or overflow or hauling the bags at all.

Can anyone determine exactly how much of OUR money that idiot Miller has spent on these bins? Did the contract go to a buddy of his or some company that he holds stock in? I think that every member of City Council that voted in favour of this Baldrick-style "cunning plan" should be fired.

 

[adma]

I'd love to see a megabin belonging to this house