By Nathalie

Since Toronto went
green in October, Torontoist has been on the lookout for an alternative to the City’s boring beige compost pail on behalf of those despondent hipsters eyeing their so-expensive, so-sleek stainless steel appliances and slate counters and wondering, Oh Umbra, where art thou?
While the Canadian industrial design darlings rested on their Garbo bin laurels, the good folks at Lee Valley Tools HQ in Ottawa spotted our bat-signal. Its two large GTA stores are favourites for task-specific tools, vintage toys, brilliant gardening accessories and woodworking ephemera and with Toronto’s eco-stylish plight in mind, they designed a snazzy, stainless steel alternative to the City’s standard-issue kitchen counter pail. For less than twenty bucks. In two sizes. (They also carry a more traditional, jaunty green plastic scrap pail, complete with odor-absorbing charcoal filter.)
The coup should come as no surprise: Lee Valley is the quarter-century-old hardware emporium of choice for discerning gadgetophiles, and the brains behind the internationally bestselling, oft-imitated
stainless steel kitchen rasp and zester, now commercially known as the Microplane. It ain’t easy being green, but that doesn’t mean it has to be ugly.