I was so proud of the City of Toronto when they implemented the Green Bin program. I went from producing a large garbage bag worth of waste a week to less than one per month. It seems like such a trivial contribution to the overall effort, yet it’s these little things that add up to make all the difference.
Shortly after the program began, I moved into an apartment and was disappointed to find that my building didn’t support it. Or so I thought. So I emailed the City to find out. A spokesperson there said the City was undertaking a pilot program to determine the economic feasibility of serving apartment buildings and condos. It’s been a year since then and still nothing.
How can it cost more to serve buildings that house the equivalent of hundreds of homes? I don’t expect a separate garbage chute, just a green dumpster next to the regular waste and recycling bins. It seems so simple.
Which is why the ads that encourage program participation aggravate me all the more. “You walk it to the curb, it saves us 800km”. I would be thrilled to make the effort to save the 800km drive to landfill, I really would! Not only am I reducing the amount of material that goes to landfill, I’m limiting the fuel necessary to transport it there.
So it boils down to this: if the city is reducing their transport costs, can they not divert some of these savings to making the program accessible city-wide?
Green Bin contact info for the City of Toronto: greenbin@toronto.ca
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Tags: City of Toronto, composting, environment, Green Bin
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