[getsmart-l] There is no good system that can't be circumvented !

[John O'Gorman]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071201.COMPACT01/TPStory/?query=compactor
WASTE MANAGEMENT: CUTTING CORNERS

Putting the squeeze on trash
In the face of paying for their bin size, will people turn to residential trash compactors to save some cash?
JOHN LORINC 

Special to The Globe and Mail December 1, 2007

It was a case of either her or the garbage.

A year ago, clear plastic sacks of recycling and trash were threatening to take over Claudia Buchanan's garage. With five children 10 to 20 years old, Ms. Buchanan's Rosedale household was generating about 10 large bags of recyclables and an additional six sacks of trash in each two-week cycle.

Her solution: a pair of residential trash compactors, purchased at Sears for about $600 apiece, that now live in a garage that has been remodelled into a workout space.

"I had bags all over the place," she says. Since installing the compactors, "it's gone down quite a bit." Today, Ms. Buchanan puts out just one bag of garbage and another of recyclables, although she doesn't throw newspapers or glass into the maw of her machines.

Some Torontonians may be looking to such gadgets - which look like skinny dishwashers and can be installed beneath a kitchen counter - as the city begins phasing in a new fee-based waste-collection system intended to push Toronto's residential waste-diversion rate to the 70-per-cent level by 2010. (The diversion rate, the amount of waste that does not end up being shipped to landfill, currently stands at about 40 per cent.) 

Under the new policy, homeowners will pay an extra fee if they put out larger volumes of trash. But they will also receive spacious recycling containers to replace the smaller grey and blue bins, which aren't large enough for many homes. Scarborough residents will begin receiving the recycling bins next week and the distribution will continue over the next year.

The new garbage cans will come in four sizes, each with its own annual fee: free for the smallest to $151 for the 4½-bag container. The idea is to use economic incentives to reduce residential waste, city officials say.

But economic incentives come in different guises. In Ms. Buchanan's case, she will probably be saving about $150 annually because she does not need the largest container. In other words, she is poised to recoup the cost of one compactor within about four years. (Similar compactors can be found for as little as $500 or as much as $800.)

Currently, there are no municipal restrictions on the use of residential trash compactors, as is the case with garburators, those grinding devices installed in sinks.

But works committee chair Glenn De Baermaeker (Scarborough Centre) isn't a big fan of appliances that promise to put the squeeze on trash. He claims residents who buy them "are wasting their money. I can't think of why anyone would need a compactor."

Mr. De Baermaeker's lack of enthusiasm highlights a potential flaw in the new system: If homeowners who generate lots of trash choose to invest in a compactor rather than sorting more diligently, the city ends up shipping compressed recyclables and organics to the Green Lane landfill rather than selling them to recycling companies.

"If people put tin cans and plastic bottles and all of those things into the compactors, then we're missing the diversion goal," says Philip Knox, chair of the City Community Environmental Assessment Team, which is studying ways to deal with Toronto's non-recyclable refuse. He believes that the city has to redouble its efforts to inform Torontonians about the new garbage policies.

For her part, Ms. Buchanan didn't know about the coming fee system when she installed her compactors; she was just trying to beat back the tide of trash that was threatening to swamp her home. The compactors "made a world of difference," she says.
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