Garbage trucks need to stay on the beaten path and stop spilling juice

It’s roundup time for garbage complaints, but for once they have nothing to do with the growing pains of GFL, the city’s new private contractor, which has had trouble with late and missed collections.

Few things are as foul as the liquid that oozes from restaurant garbage receptacles, which Bruce Brenner says is a ongoing problem along the commercial section of Mt. Pleasant Rd., between Eglinton and Davisville Aves.

“This has been a long battle with no results,” said Brenner, noting that he’s been trying to get the city to do something about it for five years, to no avail.

“The more I make light of it, the worse it gets. All parties should be ashamed of their job performance,” he said.

Brenner sent us photos of a pink-colored liquid that had pooled in the curb in front of a restaurant garbage container, and another of food that was dropped on the street when containers were emptied.

He described it as “what I see and smell each week. This is the coolest day of the summer and the stench is so bad I must keep my windows closed.”

Matt Turner says he’s been filing complaints for two years about garbage trucks “using our quiet neighbourhood streets as a shortcut to get from the Bermondsey transfer station to Victoria Park Ave. or St. Clair Ave. on non-collection days.

“These trucks should be using main arterial roads such as Bermondsey Rd. or O’Connor Dr., but instead they use streets like Westview Blvd., Selwyn Ave. and Yardley Ave., all of which are signed ‘no heavy trucks’ and have speed humps and 30 k/ph speed limits.

“So we have a parade of garbage trucks going up and down our quiet streets for no reason,” he said, adding he’s also contacted two city couuncillors, “who agree that it must be stopped, but it continues.”

With so much garbage to collect every day, it’s hard for Toronto’s waste management to be perfect. But these are not unreasonable requests, and the lack of a positive response helps to explain why so many people warmed to the idea of private collection.