Trash those street bins, bring back the old ones
Heavy use renders receptacles inadequate
The city deserves a failing grade for waste bins that are supposed to allow people to deposit their trash without having to touch a dirty surface — but often don’t.
Foot pedals that open the flaps covering the holes for trash and recycling still don’t work on many receptacles, despite assurances two years ago that the problem would be solved.
And we’ve noticed an increasing number that are missing plastic side panels, exposing the metal framework and furthering our conclusion that they aren’t tough enough for Toronto’s mean streets.
We wrote about the flap problem in 2010, when we did an informal survey of about 100 of the city’s 4,000 bins and found that more than 25 per cent malfunctioned, mostly in areas with high pedestrian traffic.
Astral Media provides them as part of its street furniture contract with the city, in exchange for the right to post advertising.
A selling point for the new plastic bins was the foot pedal that allows people to toss trash without making contact with the yucky flap.
But many new bins in the downtown core are broken, usually because the pedal has been depressed too hard, too often, and the cable that connects to the flap is stretched or broken.
We’ve been getting complaints ever since our 2010 survey, and still find that too many downtown street bins don’t work they way they are meant to, or are starting to fall apart.
At that time, the city’s director of street furniture said bins on busy streets take a beating, but Astral was working on solutions, including a new foot pedal and adjustments to keep the cables from losing tension.
Based on what we’ve seen, and readers have told us, there is no solution yet. What’s broken in your neighbourhood? Go to www.thestar.com/thefixer and open the SeeClickFix template, or click on the “submit a problem” link. Call us at 416-869-4823. To read our blog, click on “blogs” at the top of thestar.com’s home page, or go to thestar.blogs.com/thefixer/. Tweet us at TOStarFixer.