Toronto councillor urges study into one-side garbage pickup

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A Toronto-area councillor wants the city to look at collecting garbage on just one side of the street – and asking residents on the other side to bring their bins over for pickup.

In a letter to the city's public works and infrastructure committee, Councillor Stephen Holyday of suburban Etobicoke urges members to vote next week in favour of having staff study the idea. The move, he said, could mean "better, faster and more efficient" service and, he estimates, could save the city millions of dollars.

"Many of our residential areas have quiet streets and unencumbered road shoulders that could permit residents to place waste bins on one side of the street rather than simply at the end of their driveways on both sides," Mr. Holyday said in his letter.

"This means that the collection truck needs only to make one pass down the street, and not two, reducing the effort by 50 per cent."

The idea was first raised in committee earlier this month, but deferred. The committee is set to vote on the item next Wednesday.

The councillor is proposing the idea only for certain neighbourhoods in the city – mainly those with many single, detached houses.

He acknowledged the idea likely wouldn't work in downtown Toronto, where there is a heavy volume of on-street parking, and where garbage collection is already heavily concentrated.

He also volunteered his own ward, Etobicoke Centre, to run a pilot for the idea.

In order to make it "fair for all" – balancing out which residents have to move their bins across the street – Mr. Holyday suggests having garbage bins picked up one side and recycling bins the next week on the other.

In an interview, Mr. Holyday said he came up with the idea because he sometimes misses his own garbage pickup, and will often bring it to the driveway across the street where his father lives.

"We wondered if maybe there was a way to do this on a larger basis," he said.

But already, several councillors have voiced skepticism.

Councillor Gord Perks poked fun of the idea Tuesday in a tweet, saying, "If we made everybody bring garbage to the dump themselves we would save even more."

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, chair of the city's disability, access and inclusion advisory committee, said the idea is not feasible.

"I think that there's going to be a number of logistical challenges with what the councillor is proposing, including those with physical limitations of carrying their garbage across the roadway," she said.

She added that doubling or tripling the bins on one side of the street could cause problems for those with strollers or using mobile devices.

Ms. Wong-Tam also said that the city's goal is to maximize waste diversion, and encourage the use of recycling or green bins. "Making it more difficult for people … is actually going to run contrary, I think, to the objectives of the city," she said.

Councillor Shelley Carroll, meanwhile, pointed to the city's ongoing raccoon problem, and said that many residents wouldn't want neighbours' garbage bins on or near their property.

Still, Mr. Holyday said the idea is worth studying. At least one city in the United States, North Port in Florida, already uses a similar model for garbage collection.

"We've been picking up garbage the same way for decades. It's my job to try to come up with ways to do things better," he said.