Results tagged “garbage”

Walking down Spadina Avenue between College and Dundas streets, you might completely miss them, so well do they blend in with the street scene. But stop by one of Chinatown's many municipal trash bins, let your eyes wander up slightly, and you might see one, attached to a utility pole, doing its best imitation of a yellow-jacket. Chinatown has some new signage, and the gist seems to be that you really must drop that bag of miscellaneous rotting crud someplace else, no matter what language you speak.

The city workers' strike has been a hardship, for sure. Toronto's parks are starting to look like garbage barges run aground, non-union city employees and private citizens alike are dirtying their hands and straining their muscles to keep our streets somewhat presentable, and the striking workers themselves have had to go all this time without drawing their usual paycheques. But brilliant coping strategies have a way of flourishing in times like these, like fruit flies on discarded banana peels. There is probably no better example of this than our new friend Todd. (Not his real name; a nom de grime.)

Since our trash hasn't been magically disappearing as usual for twelve days, we've been creating cute little temporary biohazard sites instead where humans normally play. What happens, though, is that there is really only a finite amount of space to dump our junk, so the City is closing two and opening two more: the York Mills arena site is being shut down today, with the Christie Pits drop-off to follow on Sunday evening at 7 p.m. The new sites to sully will be at Centennial Arena in Scarborough and Wilkett Creek Park by Eglinton and Leslie. And if you're downwind of those allegedly safe pesticide chemicals being sprayed over the mountains of garbage, perhaps make sure you've got some sick days banked—just in case.

As the current municipal strike nears the end of its first week, garbage remains the talk of the town. As Torontonians break through the plastic wrap placed around bins and protest sites chosen as temporary trash depots, letter pages and website comment sections fill with gripes and suggestions on how to handle those responsible for ensuring our garbage is taken care of. Since the first container of local refuse was carted away, city residents have publicly aired in the press their praise and scorn for those collecting our trash.

Well, that didn't take long: with the municipal workers' strike barely a day old, garbage is already piling up across the city, including in local parks. The above photo, taken early yesterday afternoon, shows a heap of refuse at Christie Pits; trash cans across Toronto are also starting to overflow, despite efforts by city workers to seal many bin openings with plastic wrap and signs imploring residents not to litter.

Earlier this afternoon, Torontoist was explaining to an American friend the quirks of the process by which Torontonians are supposed to dispose of our coffee cups: pop the plastic lid off the paper cup and throw them both into the recycling bin—but don't chuck the entire contraption while the two pieces are attached, because that screws everything up. (We love public works.) The City, we said, is currently spending tens of thousands of dollars on consultants to find a way to simplify this, which ideally will result in the development of a paper lid. Yes, it might be easier to create an educational campaign touting the virtues of removing the lid, but legislating that companies produce such PSAs on their own dime would likely be an even trickier proposition. Besides, the less plastic the better. That said, it's hard to describe all this without laughing and using the words "fuckin' crazy," before finally admitting that the process the City is undertaking is actually not all that unreasonable.

Do you think you know what items go into the blue bin, what items go into the green bin, and which things go into the garbage? You don't. Even if you've studied the charts in the collection calendar, attended several meetings of the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, read all the municipal news all the time, you don't. Sorry.

Photo by --richelle-- from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler, renowned doctor and abortion rights activist, is now a Member of the Order of Canada. Morgentaler spent two decades in and out of court fighting to give women the right to choose, and finally won R. v. Morgentaler in 1988, a decision that made abortion legal across Canada. Morgentaler's appointment to the Order was immediately met with vitriol after it was announced on Tuesday by noted female, Governor General Michaëlle Jean. Those pro-lifers really don't like it when women are allowed to choose things!

For the next four months, twenty of Toronto's garbage bins throughout the Financial District will be given a reprieve from displaying ads to instead serve as big, beautiful, magenta frames for some rather lovely photography.

As we've told you a few dozen times over the past two weeks, Torontoist's revised TTC survey ends tonight. After a few e-mails to various deep and dark corners of the TTC, we've connected with Michael Anders, the TTC’s Market Research Director and the man in charge of the Public Consultation Survey. Anders is waiting on our data––which, as of right now, consists of some 2,200 unique responses. Hopefully it can be put to some good use.

Torontonians won a hard-fought battle against MegaBins months ago. But it's not over just yet, because many of the MegaBins - like this overflowing one outside of Chester Station - are still on our streets, and will be for some time.