Another article from the Star, GTA section:
City to trash MegaBins' expansion
Ads and large bulk drew complaints
Removal up to councillors in each ward
Jul. 17, 2006. 05:38 AM
VANESSA LU
CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Remember those giant garbage bins that Toronto put on its streets as part of a three-month pilot project?
Well, now a year later, it seems most of them are here to stay  as long as the local councillor wants them.
The controversial 2.3 metre-high MegaBins  taller than basketball star Shaquille O'Neal  and their slighter smaller counterparts named EcoBins, have various slots for different types of waste and recycling. Some critics have complained they are too large and the slots are too small. Others objected to the huge advertising displayed on the MegaBins.
While the pilot project's wrap-up was delayed because the city sought more information, the city has decided not to put these bins in widespread use across the city, partly because of concerns it would have been an untendered contract.
Instead, city council said it will go ahead with plans to revamp the city's entire street furniture program  to adopt a uniform look for transit shelters, litter and recycling bins, benches, bicycle racks, newspaper vending machines, information pillars and even public toilets. That tender for a 20-year, multi-million dollar contract will be going out shortly.
Because the city is keeping the bins in the meantime, Councillor Paula Fletcher wants to see them out of her ward as soon as possible.
"It's a pilot that never ended," she said, adding some councillors like them but she considers them an eyesore.
"They are so big, you lose the joy of walking on a public street."
She has moved a motion that if a councillor wants the bins removed, the city will do so.
Under an existing agreement with Eucan, which owns the bins, the city gets $20 a month per bin plus 10 per cent of advertising revenue. The city is responsible for collecting the garbage and recyclables.
Alison Gorbould of the Toronto Public Space Committee, which aggressively fought the MegaBins, said she wishes they would be removed altogether.
"We wish the city would just remove them," she said. "They have been a failure."
Councillor Shelley Carroll, who chairs the works committee, said she hasn't decided what to do with bins in her ward.
"I want to know what's going to replace them," she said. "The complaints I got about the MegaBins were that they fill up too fast, and you don't come by enough to empty them."
Geoff Rathbone, director of solid waste planning, said this summer the city will place 136 square garbage bins  without any advertising  that can hold both garbage and recycling.
AoD
