Got an extra-big trash bin? Expect a big hit on this year’s bill

Some councillors want to scrap the biggest trash bins altogether after learning owners of the largest bins are the worst at recycling.

Thestar.com
Nov. 6, 2015
By David Rider

Toronto users of extra-large garbage bins should brace themselves for another steep rate hike, and maybe loss of those bins altogether.

Councillors at the city budget launch Friday fumed at a chart showing those trash bins are on average 77 per cent full of recyclable or compostable material, compared with between 33 and 48 per cent for the three smaller sizes.

That means the 9 per cent of Toronto homeowners paying an extra $126.39 this year for an extra-large bin are needlessly sending much more reusable material to a landfill already expected to be full by 2029.

Councillor Mike Layton called them “too lazy to recycle.” Colleague Shelley Carroll dubbed them “non-environmentalists, libertarians, that will pay any amount of money to just ignore all diversion rules.”

In the so-called rate-supported budget, city staff are recommending a 3 per cent increase in current fees of $10.63 per year for small bins, $88.73 for medium, $247.39 for large and $343.60 for extra-large.

In the next budget phase, however, councillors will debate rebates that keep those hikes low. Several said they will target the wasteful big-bin owners who keep the city from reaching its diversion targets.

“They’ve been mixing solid waste with recyclables at a rate that’s just not acceptable,” said Councillor Janet Davis, adding she would like to scrap the mammoth receptacles.

City staff will try to forecast how that elimination, which would cost the city about $1 million in fees, would affect diversion rates.

Staff are also recommending an 8 per cent hike in water rates for 2016, followed by smaller hikes in subsequent years, to help pay for replacing and repairing infrastructure, including pipes that date back as far as the 1880s.

Extreme weather in recent years has caused flooding and contributed to pipe and water-main breaks.

Toronto Water has a “state-of-good-repair” backlog of $1.6 billion. Big hikes in recent years have been aimed at getting that tab down to $200 million by 2025.

The city’s revenue from water bills, meanwhile, is dropping because Torontonians are using significantly less water than they used to.

A usage decline of 1.6 per cent this year - 60 per cent more than expected - has blown a $17-million hole in this year’s budget that will be filled from reserves.

Lou Di Geronimo, Toronto Water general manager, said the city welcomes conservation but has to budget for it.

“People are fixing their homes, and it’s a hot real-estate market so they are increasing the value of their asset with low-flow toilets” and less-thirsty washing machines, he said. “People are using less because they are changing how they use water.”

Council will set the rate-supported budget in early December, and the operating and capital budgets in February.