GIGO

Garbage in ... garbage out By SUE-ANN LEVY Last garbage day, around 9:30 a.m., I just happened to look out the window as the city truck working my new midtown neighbourhood pulled up in front of the house. The CUPE garbage collector emptied the green bin, tossing it like a football back onto the driveway. Then the truck pulled away, leaving our big garbage bin sitting there full. I dashed after the truck to find out what was wrong, comically dragging the unemptied bin behind me. "You're not supposed to leave the bungee cord on (top)... that's the rule ... you should know that!" said the collector, berating me with a few other choice words. It was only after I hastily removed the bungee cord and pulled off the lid that he conceded to take the trash. I've seen the city's garbage workers at their best and worst in the few months since I moved into a house from my previous Yorkville condo. I couldn't believe using a bungee cord was against the garbage rules, but the most recent collection calendar confirmed it was so. The city's director of collections, Rob Orpin, explains garbage lids can't be tied down "for productivity and safety" reasons because they take time to undo and can catch on a worker's clothing. Now, Orpin is a helpful and responsive fellow. But I had to especially laugh at the "productivity" comment as it likely took the collector twice the time to berate me. Still, I'm now experiencing the same problems I've heard in the past from many others. Coun. Frances Nunziata said yesterday she's received "hundreds of complaints" since the city of York switched its $4-million private contract for garbage collection to in-house six weeks ago -- leaving the city with only 20% of its garbage pickup contracted out (only in Etobicoke). It shouldn't take a Harvard economist like our mayor to ascertain that any workforce -- private or public -- will be a lot more productive and perhaps have a better attitude than I witnessed last week if they're forced to compete. So when Rob Cook, executive director of the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA), bravely came to City Hall yesterday to show how Toronto is "out of step" with most Ontario cities in keeping the bulk of its garbage pickup in-house, he was positively correct -- despite efforts by David Miller apologists and New Democrat MP Peggy Nash to attack his efforts. Cook cited a new OWMA study that says the city could save at least $10-million a year by contracting out 100% of its residential waste and recycling collection -- as is now being done by all muncipalities in the GTA except Oshawa. Based on the OWMA figures, the city's average residential (single family home) collection cost per tonne is $110.98, compared to a low of $70.19 in Richmond Hill and a high of $97 in Pickering. Cook said the OWNA arrived at $110.98 by taking the city's 2003 figures (the last published numbers!), adding in wage increases in the CUPE contract and higher fuel costs. His figures also suggest productivity is far higher in the private sector. "It's taking two-plus (garbage collection) employees in the public sector to do the work of a private sector employee," Cook said. He said the big frustration is not having updated numbers (including green bin collection costs) to allow for an "informed" debate. "Until the city puts the numbers on the table, we don't exactly know where we are." So I went to public works committee chairman Glenn DeBaeremaeker and asked him to provide the figures. After bureaucrats huddled for a few hours, Orpin contacted me at 4 p.m. yesterday to say that the present blended residential pickup cost everywhere in Toronto but Etobicoke is around $103 per tonne. He didn't have a blended rate for Etobicoke, but said the cost to collect garbage is about $70 per tonne; for green bins about $82 per tonne and for recycling about $95 per tonne. Cook laughed when he heard those figures. He said city officials "can slice and dice" the numbers all they want, but the bottom line is they should routinely be made available as part of an annual report. He questions claims by some councillors that $4 million has been saved by contracting back in the city of York's garbage six weeks ago. He wonders how the city managed to mobilize enough trucks. Did they just happen to be sitting around ready to move into York? "It's voodoo economics," he argues. "To me, that's just a reflection of the absolute waste and inefficiency in the system."