‘I don’t want to get my hand too close to them’: Why Toronto is trash talking its public litter bins

Thestar.com
May 31, 2022

The litter bins in Kevin Matte’s neighbourhood are looking trashy.

Matte, who lives in downtown Toronto’s Wellington Place, says the door of one the receptacles near his home has been broken for as long as he can remember, allowing garbage to blow away down the street. That’s not the only problem. He says the bins are small and not emptied frequently enough, and on most weekends they’re overflowing by Saturday morning.

“You’ve got bags of dog poop lying on the sidewalk because you can’t fit them in the bin any more,” said Matte. “They are disgusting.”

On the other side of downtown, Kim Halfyard says the bins in her neighbourhood near River Street and Queen Street East are so revolting residents opt to drop trash around them rather than inside.

“You’re afraid to put your hand through (the flaps) to put something in properly,” she said, adding the bins are “not taken care of.”

Matte and Halfyard aren’t the only ones grossed out by the bins of late. Council members are demanding answers about why so many of the sidewalk receptacles appear to be falling into disrepair and becoming, well, icky.

At a council meeting earlier this month, the mayor and councillors said they’ve seen the garbage bins left unrepaired for long periods of time after being vandalized, tagged with graffiti, having their doors fall off their hinges, or being otherwise damaged.

“I have never seen our waste bins in such bad condition. Something has happened,” said Coun. Mike Colle (Ward 8, Eglinton-Lawrence), who brought the issue to council.

The receptacles are in such bad shape Mayor John Tory confessed he sometimes puts litter in his pocket rather than using one, “because I don’t want to get my hand too close to them.”

“There is no question there has been a deterioration for whatever reason in the state of these bins,” he said at the May 11 meeting, asserting that there has been a decline in the receptacles’ “state of good repair” as well as “their general appearance.”

There are more than 10,000 public litter bins across the city. Although they bear the city of Toronto logo and are on city streets, they’re installed and maintained by Astral Out of Home, a private company, under a 20-year deal council approved in 2007. The city is responsible for collecting waste from the bins.

Tory and other council members said they’re concerned residents who see an unsightly bin will assume the city, rather than Astral, is at fault.

According to the city, Astral is supposed to clean and inspect bins once a week, or twice a week for receptacles in Business Improvement Areas. City staff told council the company is also supposed to make any necessary repairs within 48 hours after being notified of a problem.

Staff couldn’t immediately say whether Astral is meeting those standards. But Barbara Gray, Toronto’s general manager of transportation services, acknowledged at council that “we are seeing many damaged bins.”

She said the city is working with Astral to address the problem, but the company has been hit by supply chain issues that “have impacted timelines for repairs.”

The city confirmed to the Star that the number of service requests for litter receptacles was up in the first quarter of this year, but couldn’t immediately provide details. “Maintenance of litter receptacles continues to be a challenge,” it said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Astral, which is a division of Bell Media, declined to answer questions.

Under its agreement with the city, Astral is responsible for designing, installing and maintaining the litter bins and about 15,000 other pieces of street furniture like benches, transit shelters and information pillars.

In exchange, Astral is allowed to sell advertisements on the assets. The company is required to pay the city at least $445.3 million in ad revenue over 20 years, while investing an estimated $500 million in capital and maintenance costs for the street furniture over the same period.

This isn’t the first time the bins have been criticized as a weak point in the agreement, and for years the public and councillors have complained they seem unable to handle the wear and tear of daily use. The original plastic versions Astral supplied included foot pedals that opened the bin flaps, but the pedals broke so often the company decided in 2018 to remove them, in addition to other retrofits.

Since 2015 Astral has been installing metal bins that are supposed to be more robust.

Councillors have asked staff to report back on the state of the city’s bins, and to work with Astral to make sure the receptacles are kept in a state of good repair. They also asked staff to consult the company about installing replacement bins that “better serve the city’s increased urban density and pedestrian activity.”