Giant blue bins coming to a house near you next month

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They're big, they're blue and whether you want them or not, the city's new recycling bins are coming to you over the next month as Toronto's solid waste division embarks on Phase 2 of its four-part delivery of its new collection containers to households across Toronto.

The wheeled bins, which come in three sizes for the time being, are the first part of Toronto's new pay-as-you-throw garbage collection system that will be in place by the end of the year. And because Toronto will be including more items than ever in the inventory of materials that can be recycled, those bins are large.

That size - ranging from the equivalent of two blue boxes to six blue boxes - should be an easy fit for typical suburban homes, with wide driveways and garages. The typically smaller lots, frequently without even driveways, face a different challenge - and city solid waste officials are doing their best to accommodate.

"I think the main theme is that one size doesn't fit all for the bins," said Tim Michaels, Toronto's manager of waste diversion. "So anybody that has any sort of challenges, if they want to call (416) 392-BINS, and we'll send out what we call an investigation team, and they'll visit the home and try to work out a solution to the problem."

Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth) Councillor Paula Fletcher has been hearing a litany of those potential problems for months, as the bins rolled out in Scarborough and residents in Riverdale received cards asking them to check off which of the large bins they wanted to receive.

And she is particularly concerned that only two-thirds of households in her ward have actually returned the cards, which means they'll receive the medium bin, which holds two boxes, by default.

Next week, Fletcher plans on holding an outreach news conference to the ward's Chinese community, which she fears may not be adequately informed of the changeover.

"And there are also a few people who are so angry that they can't even talk about which bin they want," said Fletcher, who said that many of the ward's older row houses, or homes located at the top of long flights of stairs, will have difficulty moving the large, wheeled bins.

"East-end Toronto is the birthplace of the recycling movement in Toronto, but these very large bins are impossible to sit at certain homes," Fletcher said.

To that end, the city will be letting residents exchange large bins they receive for one or more smaller bins, including a much smaller bin, holding the equivalent of 1.5 blue boxes, that will be available in the fall.

People who've already chosen much larger bins will be able to swap those bins at no charge if they make a request before Nov. 1. But not immediately.

"What solid waste has agreed to at our open houses is to build maximum flexibility into the blue bin program in the very highly dense and urbanized areas of the city," Fletcher said.

"This is not a problem in Scarborough having the megabin. But it is if you have not a lot of space or don't want an extremely large bin covering off your porch."

According to Michael, the bins will be completely rolled out in what's known as District 2 - neighbourhoods between Yonge Street and Victoria Park Avenue - by the end of the month. Next, bins will roll out between Yonge and the Humber River, and finally in Etobicoke east of the Humber.