Markham, Newmarket alter textile recycling bins to prevent needless deaths

YorkRegion.com
Jan 22, 2019
Tim Kelly

The recent news that up to eight people have died in Canada from climbing into or being stuck in clothing bins has prompted the City of Markham and Town of Newmarket to take action.

Both municipalities have recently removed the anti-theft mechanisms that create a pinch point along the side of the entrance flaps to their bins.

“There is a pinch point, that as you try and get in, your weight is choking you,” said Claudia Marsales, the senior manager of waste and environmental management in Markham. Marsales is in charge of Markham’s textile recycling program and the city’s 150 bins scattered around the municipality.

“They were designed to be anti-theft but I don’t think there was any intention that people would try to go into the bins. What we’re going to do as a precaution is we’re going to disconnect the anti-theft mechanism on all of our bins,” Marsales said.

In Newmarket, as a result of the tragedies involving people trying to get in the bins and dying, the town, along with Diabetes Canada, retrofitted recycling bins located at the Magna Centre, Ray Twinney Recreation Complex and the Newmarket Community Centre and Lions Hall “to increase the safety of the bins for community use,” said a release from the town.

Newmarket said it and Diabetes Canada “consulted with industry experts to determine the best way to increase the safety of the bins. Diabetes Canada has removed the arms of the bin that locks to ensure that the door can swing at ease if the main door is open or closes. This retrofit will help decrease the possibility of a person becoming locked in the bins.”

Marsales said “The first thing I would say is that it’s always unsafe to go in any kind of waste container.

"We have people who try and jump into our front-end bins, they are searching for food, for steel, for aluminum.

“You should never jump in a waste-management bin, a textile bin is a waste-management bin, none of these bins are safe. You don’t know what’s in them, there could be something sharp,” Marsales said.

She added that there has never been an incident in Markham where someone was either stuck in a bin entrance or caught inside a bin.

Lesley Sims, who works with Richmond Hill’s 360 Kids, a support shelter for youth, said she has spoken to some of the youth who use the shelter.

Sims said that although the youth told her they had not personally tried to get into a bin, “they have seen on occasion other individuals doing so. The examples given were of the type of clothing recycling bins that had vertical doors at the bottom of the bin and were open, and they have witnessed people opening the doors, and then going inside.”

For Sims, many of the youth that come to 360 Kids for support are unable to get into emergency housing, so they have to seek temporary housing in either abandoned buildings, empty trailers, cars and open bins to find shelter in the cold weather.