How Much Is Your Garbage Worth?

So will you get one bin size and stick to it? What happens when one week time you make 75L of waste and the next time you generate 360L of waste? Are they going to tally every pickup?

Also, do residences that operate home businesses get a break?

So many questions...

I know, there are a lot of ifs involved.

My biggest question was how homeowners could switch their bin size, should they find they're throwing more or less than they originally expected. I'm pretty sure families will receive a mid-size bin to start off with, and they'll be able to try that out for a month.

I don't think they'll be able to tally each week's garbage... but I think that, in general, a family will produce the same amount of garbage week to week. I throw out less than one bag every two weeks, but that's just me on my own. It's pretty consistent though.

It would be interesting to find out if home businesses would get a tax break on this. I'm sure that will addressed in the future. It might be worth taking a look how that works in the other cities that are already running this program successfully- San Fran and Vancouver.

All those taxes that I pay, the ones that snag 1/3 of my salary, should be covering garbage collection. I live in a building right now, but if this ever starts to affect me, I'll get the smallest bin possible and either chuck my garbage in public disposals, or in the middle of the road, depending on how pissed off I am that morning.

I pay taxes, I recycle voluntarily (both using the bins and just plain old reusing things), and I expect the city to keep itself clean with the money they take out of my pockets. This, is bullshit.

As long as they reduce people's property taxes in the first year by the amount this is going to cost, I think it's a fantastic idea. I much prefer having this kind of cost broken out separately so I feel I can do something about reducing it, instead of needing to subsidize some trash-moron's waste generation and lack of recycling. If you use more, you should pay more...'nuff said.

For us as a two person household we can probably live with this most weeks and we can probably store the rest. Our neighbours with 2-3 kids will get hit. Not sure that's fair - I'd like to see extra credit on a sliding scale to accommodate larger families, who in most cases have the same income to divide among more people as it is.

The ability to recycle LDPE and polystyrene must in my opinion be available before this is enforced. In the R-s "reduce" is somewhat more of a producer than a consumer issue so takeback bylaws should also be there before imposing this.

Also note that people who are good at reducing current garbage use pay zero *less* water (now water+waste) charge. This will only result in an increase in the tax take, no reductions. Those in large households who reduce from 6 bags/2 week (current max) to 1.5 bag/2 week will pay more on their water bill. The extra will go to increased recycling but where do "reduce" savings go? To the millions paid to a private contractor to break the Etobicoke contract one year early?

One last thing - what do we do with our existing garbage cans since we must now use the standard city bin - are they to be landfilled? We'll probably give ours to friends in other jurisdictions still using existing bins, or use them for temp storage during the Christmas season when there tends to be more garbage but still!

Something tells me the racoons are going to be better fed than ever next year.

It is nice to see action being taken on the waste issue. People always complain when plans like these are implemented, but I am sure we will see positive results.

Mark: Neighbours with 2-3 kids already get all sorts of tax breaks from the provincial and federal politicians, so we really shouldn't be listening to their crying asses over this. The fact is, if you make more garbage, you're more of a drain on the system and should pay more accordingly.

Steve - families are actually less likely to be a drain on a tonne or cubic metre per person basis because they will buy more shared products and bulk products. I don't have kids but I don't think it's fair on those who do.

This is great news, people throw so much away it's insane. But the real waste doesn't come from home owners, it's businesses. I remember a story where a friend of mine was working in a business in a business park and everyone in his office recycled and it turned out that all that recycling was just being thrown into the garbage because the property owner didn't want to front the recycling cost. Recycling should be free.

Yes our society needs to stop the waste, But have no illusions ... this plan is nothing but a money grab at city hall. We already pay an enormous amount in taxes for essential services like garbage removal.

If the city was serious about reducing waste they would also be focusing on business. They would be examining our grocery stores, our fast food chains and coffee shops, and forcing them to rethink they're packaging and practices. But the line between city hall and business is blurred at best. And businesses don't just sit back and take increased taxes and costs with a mumble under the breatj the way us humble folks do.

I find it interesting to note that "the estimated increase is $62" when the cheapest option is $209. Does this mean that you get a break somewhere else? and if so can you split a larger bin with your neighbours and save money overall?

Also I'd like to know how they are going to get the garbage men to pick up a 360L bin, the ones in my neighbourhood don't even pick up our green bin if it's over 2/3s full!

This may be all well and good, or not. But if they can call on us to be more repsonsible for the garbage we toss out, would it be too much to ask companies to be more responsible for their packaging and the garbage they potentially produce? Does everything have to be vacuum sealed in plastic that you need a razor blade to get open? I've opened one item an have been amazed at the amount of wrapping and waste dedicated to that one object.
Who is actually producing more garbage, us, or the companies that wrap, seal, box, tape, wrap again, staple, staple, staple, ouch, dammit, more plastic....what now, styrofoam?

I agree... I think more pressure should be put on businesses and corporations to reduce the amount of waste they produce, but unfortunately, politics and business go hand in hand... and I'd like to say I hope, but really I highly doubt, city council (or any higher form of gov) will risk any sort of beneficial affiliation they have with businesses. Discouraging, so say the least.

The estimated increase of $62 takes into account the current $209 garbage collection fee that will be taken off your property taxes, plus the new fee which will be added to your water bill. $62 is the average increase, though... some will see less, some will see more.

I still think this program will help. There are so many people out there that don't recycle and don't compost at all, and we're all suffering for it. Individuals need to be made accountable, and the universal language is money. It's kinda like a "push come to shove" sort of deal, I think. Now, if only they'd give those pesky corporations a little shove, too...

I moved to Belgium a couple months ago, and I think that the garbage pickup system here is interesting.

In my city there are three available bin sizes: 60L, 120L, and 240L. Each household receives a grey bin for garbage and a green bin for GFT (vegetable, fruit, and garden) waste. Each bin is emptied once every two weeks. Our household (two people) has 60L bins, and they've never been too small.

For grey bin waste, you pay a fee to have the bin emptied (�0,65 for the 120L bin) plus �0,15/kg of waste.
There isn't any 'emptying fee' for the green bins, but you do pay �0,10/kg for the contents.

How do they figure out what everybody owes? When you move in to the city, you pre-pay �30 towards your pickup charges. Every bin has a microchip in it, and the bins are weighed when the truck picks them up to be emptied.

There are special blue bags for plastic bottles, metal cans, and tetrapak style packaging. The bags cost about �0,75/each (for the bag plus the collection fee). These are picked up at the same time as the green bin.

Paper and cardboard is picked up once per month, and glass needs to be taken to special 'glasbak' containers located across the city. Other recyclable materials (styrofoam, other plastic packaging, etc.) can be collected at home and taken to a recycling centre.

Of course, this is more complicated than the garbage/blue bin/grey bin system I was used to when I lived in Brampton, but it does seem to work, and the tariff system seems fair.

This may or may not be of interest to you guys up there, but if you get a chance to read Al Gore's latest book, "The Assault on Reason", I highly recommend it. I read it and i want to buy 100 copies and hand them out to people on the street.

I think this is a great start, but I would love to see this extended to blue bins as well. We have completely forgotten about the first "R", which is Reduce! I see single family homes in my neighborhood with two, three or four overflowing bins and bags of petroleum based crap in front of their house every pickup. How much fossil fuel is wasted driving around picking up all these bins, transporting and processing their contents, and then sending it back to a manufacturer so they can turn it back into more useless crap and start the cycle all over again. Most of the stuff that is being recycled is absolutely unnecessary (ie: water, pop and juice bottles) and no one really needs to buy it to start with.

We need to start looking at the true cost of all this stuff, and start making some real changes in our lifestyles, these half measures just aren't enough.

This is the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. This is about creating a new world order police state. What happens when someone steals your $300 garbage bin? Or it blows away in the wind? I know, I'll call the garbage police. I think my neighbors are garbage cheats I'm going to turn them in... it's good for the environment. This is about conditioning people to accept microchips and the government being involved with every aspect of their lives.

Natron: No, this is about finding a way to be more efficient and fair with garbage collection. Previous generations have raped the earth with no regard to anything except how can I get more. Now the government is bowing to presure and is asking people to become more responsible citizens of this earth and to be accountable for their waste. You produce more waste, you pay more. You think recycling is a waste of your time and government has no right to tell you which bin to place your cans into, you pay more for it. When people aren't being responsible on their own, the government MUST step in.