Trash piling up at Hortons drive-thrus: councillor

Trash is piling up outside Tim Hortons locations in Hamilton since coffee shops stopped providing garbage bins for drive-thru customers, a city councillor says.

“I’ve seen hot spots throughout the city,” Sam Merulla said Monday.

Merulla is proposing staff study whether the city can draft a bylaw to make all Hamilton drive-thru restaurants provide adequate garbage bins for customers.

In 2016, Tim Hortons said it removed waste and recycling bins from drive-thrus to improve its diversion efforts.

Idle-and-order customers didn’t have enough time to sort through rubbish while in line, the coffee giant said.

That has created “frustration” for customers when they look to dump their old packaging as they pass through drive-thrus, Merulla said. It ends up on ground and blown around neighbourhoods.

The Ward 4 councillor plans to float his motion before the public works committee. In it, he says “it is incumbent of good corporate citizens to contain litter related to their products.”

Tim Hortons has been criticized in the past for how much waste its disposable coffee cups generate.

This is especially notable during its signature Roll Up the Rim To Win season, which is known to leave public spaces littered with cups.

Tim Hortons didn’t respond to a request for comment Monday.

On its website, the coffee giant says it is “aware of the environmental impacts of our packaging and waste materials.”

Products have “anti-litter messages,” the chain sponsors cleanup events, serves in china cups and sells reusable mugs.

Tim Hortons says its cup can be recycled “but it is not acceptable for recycling everywhere at this time.”