Beaches-East York residents cite number of concerns as new private recycling collection system begins
By MATTHEW STEPHENS
As the first run of recycling collection by private company Circular Materials and Green for Life Environmental Inc. (GFL) comes to an end, some East Toronto residents have expressed concerns regarding late pickups, missed streets, lack of communication, and congestion on local streets.
On Tuesday, Jan. 6, Beaches-East York Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Mary-Margaret McMahon took to Facebook to ask community members for feedback on their experiences with the new recycling collection process. Prior to this month, recycling (blue bin material) had been collected by city employees.
Now, as part of a provincial mandate making producers responsible for recycling materials, blue bins are being collected privately while garbage and organics (green bin items) continue to be collected by the city in this part of Toronto. Under the new provincial legislation, Circular Materials has taken over recycling collection and related services for single-family homes, some multi-residential buildings, schools, long-term care facilities and retirement homes.
“The city managed to pick up our Xmas tree, green bin, and garbage bin. The recycling bin is still on the sidewalk here on Firstbrooke Road. 5:50 pm,” said one local resident in a comment on McMahon’s Facebook post.
Others in the community experienced recycling pickups as late as 6:45-7 p.m. on Jan. 6, with one resident describing GFL’s delayed collection as “appalling.”
“The city picked up the grey and green bins PLUS the Xmas trees all before 1 p.m. today. Not impressed. No excuse for this,” said the resident in a comment.
“GFL does not get a pass because ‘it’s the first pickup.’ This is appalling; it’s garbage. And they are supposed to be the experts!”
In an interview with Beach Metro Community News, McMahon supported GFL on their first day of collection, mentioning that mistakes are bound to happen when taking on a new job.
“Remember what it was like on the first day of our jobs. We made mistakes, there’s growing pains,” explained McMahon. “In my experience, Circular Materials has been really on the ball with getting back to me, and they want this to work.”
Other local residents expressed disappointment due to a lack of effective communication from the city and province, resulting in many not realizing their black garbage bins needed to be put out for collection.
“Fortunately, both garbage and blue bins were picked up…garbage bin by the city and blue bin by the new vendor. Many other households on my street only had their blue bin at the curb. Very confusing communication by the city on this transition,” said one resident on McMahon’s post.
At the provincial level, McMahon told Beach Metro Community News that the Ontario government has done little to inform communities about the latest changes to the recycling collection system.
“There’s been no community communication from the province,” said McMahon, who is a Liberal MPP and not part of the Progressive Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford. “I had a briefing with the ministry and questioned whether they would do any communication and was told no.”
She said she has been encouraging other local MPPs to step up and inform members of the community about how the new system works and what items will be collected.
“They’re expanding the selection of items to be collected,” said McMahon. “For example, they’re taking black plastic, and they never took that before in Toronto. Also ice cream tubs, deodorant sticks, toothpaste tubes, there’s a whole list. So, I’m trying to do some ‘infomercials’ to provide more education on it.”
McMahon called out Premier Ford for delaying the rollout of the new recycling collection program, a decision she said has contributed to some of the problems and confusion.
“A bit of the problem is that the premier is delaying some of the targets and some of the rollout,” said McMahon.
“The program is supposed to be expanded to more parks, open spaces, churches, schools and multi-residential more than it is now. And he’s delaying that, so that’s a problem.”
Part of the Ontario Environment Plan, the transition to privatized collection of recyclables has been implemented to make product manufacturers “financially and operationally” responsible for “managing the life-cycle of their products,” and will help to alleviate the financial burden of waste management on municipalities.
McMahon expressed her support for the new program, stating that it will “remove the responsibility from the municipality and put the onus on the producers of products.”
“People love their blue bins. For some, that’s their strongest climate action that they do and that’s great,” said McMahon. “Hopefully this will encourage them to do more on that front because we’re in a climate emergency.”
For more information from Circular Materials, please call 1-888-921-2686, or go online to https://www.circularmaterials.ca/resident-communities/toronto/ for requests and inquiries related to any recycling services, missed collections and bin repairs or replacements.
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