Comrade Miller's View Of Free

Take the trash the first time
By SUE-ANN LEVY

If Mayor David Miller truly wants to make over Toronto today, he might want to start with his own unionized city workers and their less than stellar garbage collection efforts.

I'm talking about the trail of litter and compost, tossed green and recycling bins too often left behind once city trash workers have been through a neighbourhood.

Since the mayor has asked everyone to take 20 minutes at 2 p.m. today to pick up litter for free (a $100,000 city-funded "free" cleanup), it stands to reason their efforts shouldn't include picking up after those paid upwards of $23 per hour plus benefits to keep the city clean.

Coun. Case Ootes happened to see the "efforts" of a city trash collection crew on his own pickup day a week ago. As he walked his dog around 7 a.m., he watched a garbage worker throw trash from the green bins into the hopper and then just toss the bin back on the lawns and onto the driveways -- like a football -- "with stuff still left" in it.

That stuff spilled onto the street. An egg carton landed right in front of his own driveway.

Comment:This is normal....not a week goes by that there aren't items left in the recycling bin for cardboard.

Ootes watched the same routine occur at house after house and as he walked around the neighbourhood he saw paper and tin cans left behind on the lawns and the sidewalks.

"It wasn't an isolated incident," he said. "I think it's unconscionable that our own city workforce doesn't do the job that people would expect it to do."

Rob Orpin, Director of Solid Waste Collections, told me they'd met with the relevant staff and clearly outlined their expectations to them -- that bins are not to be thrown and the area is to be left tidy and free of litter.

Asked whether he'd received similar complaints from other neighbourhoods, he said: "It happens occasionally ... but infrequently."

I highly doubt that. In fact, I've lost count how many times I've jogged through the Annex on garbage pickup day and watched the trucks spew a trail of trash behind them.

Ootes suspects this is prevalent throughout the city. He believes the attitude of the union is residents can complain all they want but it won't make a difference. They've got the support of the mayor and "to hell with you," he said.

That said, if Miller expects to have a clean and beautiful city, he'd better start by monitoring his own workforce.

"For the mayor to talk about a 20-minute cleanup, we better start with our own collection crews before we start asking the general public to pick up," Ootes said. "If this is an example of what's happening around the city, we have a bigger problem than just our citizens littering."