Environment
What's Recyclable and What's Not in Toronto?
Recycling, composting, and landfilling is a complicated process in Toronto. Some egg cartons are recyclable and go in the blue bin, but others are not. Batteries shouldn't go in the grey bin garbage. But human hair should.
Between blue bins, green bins, grey bins, and special pickups and drop-off depots, there have been many times when I've been less than completely certain about how to dispose of something. Until now.
There's a new online, search-enabled, City of Toronto garbage and recycling web site that sets disposal straight. And it's rather smart.
Entering "fish" for example, gives us results for proper disposal of both food and aquariums. Entering "carpet" points us to both vacuum and shag flooring disposal.
And I suppose fittingly so, entering "pesky neighbour" or "ttc fare hike" or "rogers bill" yields no results.
Hat tip to Councilor Joe Mihevc for the tip on Twitter.
Discussion
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I saw the Tweet as well and was similarly impressed by the search results. "Plastic bag" covered all types of bags like shopping, food storage, wrappers, etc. Same with 'styrofoam': trays, packing peanuts, coffee cups, flower base, etc. Now let's hope I remember to use this website when I can't figure out if something is recyclable!
FYI: condoms are not recyclable, and require a city-issued Yellow tag for proper disposal.
Call me old fashion but I'm starting to feel like a garbage-man myself and I don't even work for the city. Pretty soon they will have me driving truck.
Just think of all the sick days and payouts you get!
I saw this on Twitter as well. It seems to be really useful information.
-Vic De Zen
Is there a version that I can print off in big neon letters and give to my downstairs neighbours so they stop filling up our garbage bins with recyclables and compost that the animals spread all over the lawn?
Great tool! I had the same idea about it last year, as i kept finding myself staring at the mass of items in the bluebin/green bin foldout found inside the calendar they send each year. Nice to see the city did as well.
@Hotdoggable: i wouldn't go that far. It's more about the public taking more responsibility over our trash to help increase effective waste diversion. The less they have to try and divert on site, the more effective the recycling.
I have a simpler solution: whenever in doubt--no matter if items are truly recyclable/compostable or not--just put everything in the blue or green bin. Simple. No harm done and residents save money by not having to pay more for garbage disposal. It saves us all time, too!
That's what I do at home and it works!
Who cares? It all goes to Michigan anyway!
Try explaining this process to a 75 year old and see what they say. I'll help you out: "Why should I sit and play with garbage all day so the government can stuff their pockets with the money that they should use to pay garbage disposal workers...they need to hire more of them instead of expecting residents to do all the difficult work! In a nutshell, I know plenty of retired folks that don't give a squat about recycling and where the garbage ends up. Oh, and a LOT of these seniors don't even know how to use the internet nor have access to a computer and a lot of them don't speak, read or write English either!
Anyone else search where to put "Dead Body"?? no.. just me?? oh...
I've seen it for myself.. both the green bin and garbage are thrown into the SAME compartment in the garbage truck... you're only fooling yourself if you believe in Toronto's recyclying effort.
What about getting your garbage actually collected? Mine's been sitting on the curb for almost a week now, waiting.
Miller: There's a separate slot that separates green bin stuff from Garbage. It may look like the same one unless you look at the correct angle. The collectors on my street always do it right. While there are some problems with the Green Bin Program, the workers aren't outright sabotaging it.
Marion: Did your garbage day switch? I live in The Annex and receive Night Pickup. As of Nov. 1 our pickup day switched to Tuesday Nights, no longer Wednesday nights. We were notified of this by new calendars being issued with stickers on them telling us of the change. Never the street has been a mess of people who have left their stuff out all week. Some of those people still have their recycling out now, even though it's a garbage night tonight, meaning they are going to be 2 weeks behind schedule.
If this ever happens don't just leave it out for a week, call 311 and arrange a pickup or explanation. The most a pickup should be delayed is 24 hours, 48 if there's a storm. If it's been close to a week, something is wrong.
Recycling is pointless, as is composting.
We'd be much more environmentally friendly simply by landfilling all of it - on a net basis of course (greenies tend to be horrible at math and accurately tracking things). Focus on not producing waste in the first place and then on removing waste as fast and efficiently as possible for public health reasons - eliminating rats, etc.
One has to wonder whether the whole point of reduced garbage collection is to engender a revival of plague to combat the Gaian scourge that is homo sapiens. The stated objectives are laughable and all of the actions go against the goals claimed.