Beat the taxman, toss it now

City's garbage levy and new limits kick off on Monday, even though 75,000 don't have bins yet

By SUE-ANN LEVY, TORONTO SUN

Last Updated: 23rd October 2008, 3:13am

In a little more than a week -- Nov. 3 to be exact -- the David Miller garbage tax tap will "turn on" for the city's 480,000 homeowners.

They will be paying their new levy, er tax, whether they have their new grey trash bins or not.

In fact, about 75,000 residents throughout the city -- or 15% of single-family households -- will have to make do with the "equivalent number" of pink tags which they will have to affix to green garbage bags every two weeks, said Rob Orpin, the city's director of collections.

(Hmmm. I won't even suggest bag tags would have been the far more efficient way to deal with the new garbage limits than bins at $50 a pop. But then this is Socialist Silly Hall, where spending money has become a fine art.)

"We anticipate that we'll be all finished (delivering the bins) by Jan. 31," he said.

The main reason for the delay is the far greater demand than anticipated for the medium-sized bin (37% of orders vs. the 30% predicted) -- which holds the equivalent of 1 1/2 green bags and will cost an extra $39 per year on top of the $209 already charged for city garbage services.

According to the 2009 solid waste capital and operating budget documents (on which public hearings will be held at today's budget committee meeting) the garbage fees will not increase next year.

Geoff Rathbone, general manager of solid waste, told me they anticipate about a 3.5% increase in the fees starting in January of 2010. "Right now we are recommending a 0% increase that takes us right to the end of December 2009," he said.

Orpin noted the garbage tax "covers everything related to garbage" -- collection, transfer stations, litter and perpetual care of landfills.

BACK OVER THE BIN

Our new garbage bin was dropped off last week along with a handy-dandy coloured flyer containing a list of rules on how to use it. A series of pictures shows us how to put our garbage bins out by 7 a.m. on collection day at the end of our driveway (a driveway pictured without cars, I might add) and not on the grassy boulevard beside the driveway. Never mind the logistics of trying to back out a car departing for work before the garbage crew arrives on one's street.

Another rule had me howling. It suggested that in winter weather, the bin be put in a clear spot. "The collection crew will return it to that spot," the flyer notes.

Now if the city's CUPE forces ever set down our bins the exact way they found them -- and didn't toss them like footballs -- I think I would faint from the shock.

As for enforcement of the mandatory diversion bylaw, Lance Cumberbatch of the city's municipal licensing and standards department says at the start it won't be "aggressive." Instead they'll spend some time educating householders, choosing only to hand out $105 tickets starting next March to people caught co-mingling organics with paper and plastic or dumping garbage illegally (at the side of the road, in alleyways and in parks trash bins, for example).

Coun. Mike Del Grande said he suspects it will not be an easy transition to the new garbage tax scheme. He's already getting "phone calls all over the place" about the bins and the pink tags.

"I think they (city officials) were ambitious," he said. "They tried to rush this through because this is a money-maker for them."

He also suspects the money won't go to diversion initiatives but to general revenues.