City studying keeping trash pickup to one side of street

Torontosun.com
Oct. 7, 2015
By Don Peat

The City of Toronto is studying whether it could save cash by forcing residents to place their trash on just one side of the street.

Councillors on the public works committee voted 4-2 to look at Councillor Stephen Holyday’s idea.

City staff will report back on the feasibility of collecting garbage, recycling, yard waste and green bins from one designated side of residential roads in late 2016.

“We would be remiss as a council in not exploring options,” Holyday told the committee Wednesday.

After some councillors complained it would be too complicated for some residents to haul their waste to the other side of the road, Holyday argued “with complexity comes great return.”

Councillor Ron Moeser said he already has enough trouble getting his bins out when there’s lots of snow.

“I can’t see how this is going to work,” he told the committee.

Holyday said the staff report will consider factors like snow.

“One of the things that I’ve asked the report to address is seasonality,” Holyday said. “Right now, we pick up yard waste part of the year, perhaps this is a program that can work part of the year, if in fact we find that snow is an issue.”