Some residents reporting theft of new garbage bins

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Toronto's first cycle collecting the city's garbage under the new user-pay system has had some 'hiccups' - including some reported thefts of the new garbage bins - but city officials say most of the problems are being resolved as they're reported.

"We've finished one cycle and we had a small and I stress the word small - less than one per cent - that neither had the new bins nor the tags on their garbage," said Rob Orpin, who heads the city's solid waste collection.

"What we did was we left a notice on that garbage, for those residents. We need to find out why they weren't part of our system: either they didn't have the tags, or it was a rental property and they weren't informed, or the bin was stolen."

Orpin said that for the most part, collection from the 500,000 single-family households has gone well, with residents putting garbage out in city-provided bins as instructed. Of those, about 100 residents have so far told the city they didn't put out their garbage because their bins, which cost taxpayers up to $200 a year, were stolen.

As well, the city is dealing with getting special pink garbage tags to about 75,000 households who have yet to receive their garbage bins. And Orpin said that 1,200 of those tags couldn't be delivered.

When a resident puts out garbage without a tag or bin, city workers leave the garbage with a sticker on it explaining the problem. When the resident calls and either corrects or explains the problem, city solid waste workers have come out and collected it.

And as the city is starting its second two-week cycle, Orpin said there's been a palpable improvement.

"Today is the first day of the second collection, and I'll use Scarborough as an example: I've had five or six locations that didn't have their proper tags on," he said. "The number is minute. You'd get that on a typical collection day. It's a massive program and a huge change and we're working our way through it. We are working through all councillors to solve this problem."

The problem entered the political arena this week after Mayor David Miller's office sent an e-mail memo to just over half of council - 22 councillors who generally support his agenda - telling those councillors how to ensure garbage collection for residents who have neither tag nor bin.

Miller's spokesperson Stuart Green said the e-mail was a response to councillors who'd raised questions about the program with the mayor's office.

"These are councillors who personally or through their offices at some point in time contacted us about the new garbage system," he said. "We acknowledge there's been hiccups with the new garbage system. There's no denying and no getting around it."

Ward 29 (Toronto Danforth) Councillor Case Ootes wasn't buying that.

"If you believe that, I have a bridge in Leaside I'd we willing to sell you," he said.

"If you take a look at that list without going very far down it's exclusively those that are 99 per cent of the time supporting him," said Ootes, who was sent the e-mail Tuesday, Green said.

Ootes said the e-mail should have gone out to all councillors immediately.

The memo was sent to councillors Sandra Bussin, Shelley Carroll, Raymond Cho, Janet Davis, Glenn De Baeremaeker, Frank Di Giorgio, John Filion, Paula Fletcher, Adam Giambrone, Suzanne Hall, Adrian Heaps, Norm Kelly, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Giorgio Mammoliti, Pam McConnell, Joe Mihevc, Ron Moeser, Howard Moscoe, Joe Pantalone, Gord Perks, Kyle Rae, and Adam Vaughan.