It's melting garbage glacier season in Toronto and people are grossed out
Winter only has a few weeks to go, and Toronto got a brief taste of spring weather when temperatures soared into the teens on Sunday. But nothing comes without a price in this town.
It's been a brutal season, punctuated by a historic mid-January blizzard that ground Toronto to a halt. Most of that snow was removed, the city forming vast mountains of dirty, salt-saturated snow as crews worked overtime to clear streets, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
But not all of the snow was carted off; some of it was piled high into dense banks on the sides of roads. The arrival of the first major melting event means that these temporary glaciers have begun to recede, leaving a nasty mess of filth that serves as an annual reminder that we humans are a trash species.
Perfect pic.twitter.com/w6SB4Nhiy5
— Three Geese Radius (@shawnmicallef) March 6, 2022
The waste being revealed paints a bit of a picture about the last winter of lockdowns, with fewer cigarette butts easily attributed to the lack of nightlife during this period. In place of the piles of tar-stained butts, this year's garbage glaciers seem to have more disposable masks peppered in.
Bars being closed probably means they are less than 20% cigarette butts by volume.
— Rob Cruickshank (@robcruickshank) March 6, 2022
One claims to have witnessed the city making an effort to clean these thawing waste heaps, an effort which apparently fell short.
Listen, I just watched a cleaning crew on Thursday wash one down along with the TTC shelter. Meanwhile, garbage was falling out of it and surrounded by trash on the bottom. But they soaped it up and well, peak Toronto. Smdh.
— Michelle “Triple-Vaxxed” Jones. (@maej43) March 6, 2022
Others have… interesting ideas… for what to do with the gross snowbanks.
I'm Johnny Knoxville and this is garbage glacier slushie.
— nicolas bello (@nbellotoronto) March 6, 2022
With temperatures expected to hover at or above freezing through the week, these garbage glaciers are only going to get more unsightly as the snow melts and the concentration of trash becomes more apparent.
