Every Bit of Ink

‘Going to smell like a dump’

Condos aren’t crazy for green bins

Cassandra Jowett, National Post
Published: Thursday, March 19, 2009

Hundreds of apartment and condominium buildings across Toronto are starting to implement the city’s waste-diverting green-bin program, but property managers fear they will be forced to clean up the mess and foot the bill.

The program will roll out to 300 of Toronto’s 5,000 apartment and condo buildings each month over the next 18 months.

Greater Toronto Apartment Association (GTAA) president Brad Butt said the feedback he’s received so far from member companies has been mostly positive, but “there are considerable logistics that have to be worked out,” including setting up a collection system suitable for each building and motivating residents to participate in the program.

Most of Toronto’s high-rise residential buildings are decades old and were built with only one chute for garbage, so tenants must carry organic waste and recyclables down to ground-floor bins.

What worries Mr. Butt the most, however, is the summer heat. In most cases, the large green bins will remain outdoors and exposed to the heat and sun for a week between pickups. “The hotter it gets, the stinkier it’s going to get.”

Gold Seal Management vice-president Neil Sigler said the program has not started yet in any of the company’s more than 25 Toronto buildings, but he is not looking forward to it.

“It’s going to smell like a dump. I expect a lot of tenant complaints about the odour,” Mr. Sigler said.

Mr. Butt said the GTAA is in talks with the city to pick up the green bins twice a week in the summer to minimize the smell. “It’s really in the city’s corner.”

But the general manager of Toronto’s Solid Waste Management Services, Geoff Rathbone, said property managers have nothing to worry about — organic material is usually mixed in with garbage anyway and won’t smell any worse than usual. And if it does, it’s up to building management to deal with it.

“Grocery bags help to contain many of the odours and there are sprays to cover the smell,” Mr. Rathbone said.

Although the green-bin program is new to most buildings, the city launched a pilot project in 2007 to help smooth out any problems.

Anne-Marie Ambert’s condominium on Doris Avenue in North York was one of 30 buildings in the pilot project. The former condo-board president and self-proclaimed environmentalist said it wasn’t difficult to keep the organic waste under control and within a short time, the building saw a complete reversal in the ratio of garbage to recyclables and organics.

Six years ago, the 323 units were producing seven bins of garbage and only one or two recycling bins each week. Today, residents set out only two garbage bins, alongside seven recycling and two green bins.

“It’s a matter of education,” Ms. Ambert said, adding long-term communicating to residents about the financial and environmental benefits is key. “Don’t expect success overnight.”

Toronto city Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, chairman of the public works committee, said although composting is more effort, “people recognize that throwing waste in a hole in the ground is not the right thing to do.”

However, property managers note that many tenants choose not to recycle at all. “Our blue-bin recycling rate is very low and I think the green bins will be even worse,” Mr. Sigler said.

In 2007, only 13% of waste generated by apartment and condo-dwellers was diverted from landfill, compared with a 59% diversion rate for single-family homes. So while single-family homes diverted 326,000 tonnes of recyclables and organics that year, multifamily residences were sending 271,000 tonnes to landfill.

The city wants a diversion rate of 70% by 2010, so last year it started charging apartment and condo buildings, as well as single-family homes, based on how much garbage they produce.

That cost trickles down equally to all residents in the form of rent or condo fee increases — tenants who recycle and compost will pay the same as those who send everything to landfill, essentially eliminating any financial incentive.

Mr. Sigler said property managers will try to make it as easy as possible for their tenants to participate. “But there’s only so much you can do until tenants really want to do it” — or until the garbage fees hit residents directly.

He said a user-pay system in each building would encourage participation and increase diversion rates. A resident would swipe a card to access the garbage chute and be charged a fee each time.

Mr. Sigler said the city could encourage the installation of such systems by offering rebates to property managers. Mr. Rathbone said the city would allow buildings to install their own user-pay systems, but there are no plans to subsidize them.