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Toronto Life: Preville on Politics: Suck my waste, Toronto
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May 5, 2008
Posted on December 18, 2007 byPhilip Preville
Trash collection is one of those basic city services that seems
impervious to new technology: you put your trash
out at the curb and a truck hauls it away. But what if, like
water, sewage and gas, you could collect it all
underground? Vacuum-waste collectionwhich gets abrief mention in
the toilet-bowl cover story of Toronto
Lifes January issueis being touted as the future of waste
management, and it is part ofWaterfronTorontos
vision for its new residential communities in the West Don Lands
and East Bayfront areas. Unfortunately, that
vision clashes with city halls own idea of a bold, trashy
future.
The biggest name in vacuum waste collection is EnVac, a
Scandinavian firm that does business around the
world. The system involves adding three pipelines to the
underground networkone for waste, one for organics
and one for recycled materials, all of which shuttle waste to a
nearby transfer station. The collection system can
be connected directly to multi-residential units, while for
single-family areas you might locate the intakes at the
end of the street.
Its benefits are obvious: no trash on the curb, no
fossil-fuel-burning trucks, no raccoon problems, no injuries to
city waste collectors. Its not particularly feasible for areas
of the city that are already built-up, but its ideal fornew
large-scale developments, which is one of the reasons why
WaterfronTorontowhich will be building vast
residential communities from scratchis pretty much sold on the
idea. We would like to see vacuum waste on
the waterfront as part of the green development agenda, says
Marisa Piattelli, the organizations spokesperson.
It is a component of leading-edge sustainable development.
Piattelli also says vacuum waste will be a
differentiator for the city: a model of urban living that will
set Toronto above the rest, and compel other cities to
come here to see how its done.
The city, however, has its reservations. Geoff Rathbone,
Torontos Director of Solid Waste Management, is open
to the idea but sees a number of potential logistical problems.
For one, theres the matter of oversize itemsthat
smelly old mattress wont fit into a vacuum tube. For another,
theres cost. The current system of truck haulage
costs about $20 per unit per year for residential high-rises,
and $80 per year for detached or semi-detached
homes. Its not entirely clear yet whether vacuum waste is
cost-competitive. Rathbones staff is currently working
with city planning and WaterfronToronto on a report that will be
made public in late January.
But the bigger issue is a philosophical one. Earlier this year,
city council approved a plan to take trash collection
off the property-tax rolls and bill separately for the service.
Its all part of the strategy to increase diversion rates:
by charging residents for trash but not for organics or
recycling, it will encourage people to recycle more. This
user-pay arrangement also involves distributing new bins
embedded with computer chips, so that the city can
keep track of how much waste each home generates. Its an
ambitious plan, one that the city is heavily invested
init goes into effect in the latter half of 2008.
Rathbone notes that vacuum waste can accommodate the user-pay
principle: the system can be equipped with
magnetic-strip readers, so that residents must swipe their trash
card every time they drop their waste down the
intake. Admittedly, between the lack of curbside pickup and the
swipe cards, vacuum waste starts to look like a
hassle. But what it really does is compel people to become more
intimate with their own waste, which is the best
way to get them to reduce and divert.
Anyone who believes that Toronto should be the greenest city in
North America, but who thinks it can achieve
that title without radical changes in civic routines, is
dreaming.
Categories: General, City Hall
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Sweden and their burning garbage too:
http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1147
We've got a short article on Vacuum waste diversion in Malmo in
the current issue of Spacing. A
couple years ago one of our editors went to Sweden and came back
raving about this stuff,
complete with pamphlets.
Yes, but is a raving Spacing editor - even one with pamphlets -
really a good public policy
endorsement?
Blogs
Preville on PoliticsSuck my waste, Toronto
COMMENTS
Shawn MicallefDecember 18, 2007 at 5:08 p.m.
BobDecember 18, 2007 at 9:49 p.m.
Privatizing the
TTChow could it be
any worse than what
weve got?
Toronto incomes are
on the decline (or, The
Friday Pessimist,
Thursday edition)
The upside of being a
have-not province
Get your TTC strike
rebate now!
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Veteran freelance writer Philip Preville lived much of his life
in
Montreal and Edmonton before he was lured, like so many
Torontonians before him, by the promise of more work and a
better living. A National Magazine Award winner and former
Canadian Journalism Fellow at the University of Torontos
Massey College, Preville writes Toronto Lifes politics
column. He lives with his wife and one-year-old son in
Riverdale, just close enough to the Don Valley Parkway that
he
can hear it when he steps outside his housebut just far
enough
away that it doesnt keep him awake at night. On his office
wall
hangs a 193839 press pass belonging to his grandfather,
Elias
Gannon, who wrote for theMontreal Star.
Preville on Politics RSS Feed
Philip Preville
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Toronto Life: Preville on Politics: Suck my waste, Toronto
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2 sur 2 5/05/08 23:11
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I don't know Bob, I wasn't making a public policy
endorsement.
Let's start with ensuring that the cost of taking the TTC stops
going up, before we start talking
about vacuum waste collection.
Also, has anyone ever heard of 'dumping'? These computer chips
embedded in bins are
ridiculous- I have noted that Torontonians are really dedicated
to recycling, and do it very well as
a point of principle. What this will do is encourage less
scrupulous citizens to dump waste on
other people's properties for pickup and have them absorb the
cost.
I was wondering when someone would raise the issue of 'dumping.'
Consider the scenario: the
city will be issuing three standard-sized bins for trash, with a
different price for each. If I have a
small bin that's overflowing and my neighbour has spare space in
her bin, I will be sorely
tempted to dump my overflow into her bin in the wee hours rather
than upsize my own. I might
even offer to pay her for the use of her excess trash space,
thus creating a black market (under the
new system, a half-full waste bin is like an extra parking space
or a basement apartment -- you
can rent it out). I suspect this is why municipal waste
collection has been treated for so long as a
universal social program: because any user-pay scheme will
incite bad behaviour with
household waste, which is not good for the social fabric. And
for what it's worth: if you have
swipe-card-activated vacuum waste collection, dumping is never a
problem.
Your name:
Comment:
Preview comment
Shawn MicallefDecember 19, 2007 at 12:24 a.m.
Alisa RobertsDecember 19, 2007 at 2:15 p.m.
Philip PrevilleDecember 19, 2007 at 3:19 p.m.
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