Separation issues: 1 chute or 3
Dennis the superintendent has been up this dark path before. Armed with a long hooked pole, he hopes to avoid a painful and potentially dangerous collision. He has dealt with the messy results of past collisions before.
His opponent is a lodged garbage bag and he is staring up into the dark tunnel of a high-rise garbage chute.
Garbage chutes epitomize the convenience-driven lifestyle of high-rise living. It is a very simple concept: throw a bag of garbage down the chute and someone else takes care of it from there. All-inclusive condo fees add to the convenience. If it all sounds too easy, it probably is, and for Noel Wright, a green committee member and resident of the Matrix condominium, at Front and Spadina in downtown Toronto, that means one thing.
“It’s easier for people to put everything in a garbage bag and take it out once or twice a day,” Wright said. “And just chuck it all down the chute.”
One option available to tackle the convenience and recycling challenges is a tri-sorter. These automated systems separate refuse into three individual bins at the bottom of the chute. They first began to appear in Toronto buildings in the early 1990s but it wasn’t until recently that they became much more prevalent. A 2006 bylaw requiring developers to include recycling facilities that are as convenient as garbage disposal saw a huge spike in numbers in the GTA, upwards of 250 buildings at last count.
Tim Reeve-Newson of Waste Solutions Group, a tri-sorter manufacturer says convenience is not the only attribute tri-sorters bring to the condo equation.
“The rule of thumb we work on is that we expect to cut your garbage bill by a third,” he said. “We see the best use in buildings that have a retrofit system. They don’t take it for granted.”
Jennifer Da Silva is one of the lucky ones. She lives in a mid-town Toronto condo with a tri-sorter in place.
“Its pretty simple and convenient. We have the system where you just press the button before you put your bag in the chute,” Da Silva said. “One button for recyclables, one for garbage and one for food waste.”
Wright is trying to break through the convenience barrier and change the poor recycling habits of her fellow residents. She is fighting a big battle, a 642-unit battle with an even split of owners and renters.
Wright is a volunteer who works closely with the Matrix building manager, Sylvia Clark. Clark lays a portion of the blame for poor recycling on the design of the building and some on the residents.
“We have a high number of renters who don’t realize the cost of garbage,” Clark said. “I also think it’s difficult for people to get down to the recycling bins, they have to come all the way down to the parking levels and it’s not easily accessible for them.”
This is not just a problem at the Matrix. City of Toronto statistics clearly illustrate the huge gap between multi-family buildings and single homes. In 2008, single-family homes recycled 59 per cent of waste while multi-family buildings diverted only 15 per cent, for a city wide total of 44 per cent. The recycling goal is 70 per cent diversion by 2010.
Residents of the Matrix can play the convenience card handily, given they have to carry their recycling down to designated areas in the underground parking lot.
Back in midtown, as convenient as a tri-sorter system is, Da Silva still finds separating her recycling challenging in her suite.
“I want to recycle as much as possible but how am I supposed to store all the different bins in my place?” she said. “My place is not that big, so sometimes I just cant.”
The space issue also dominates discussion back at the Matrix. The building design doesn’t allow for installation of a tri-sorter system. Clark has to find creative ways to encourage recycling or she will simply have to increase the condo fees. The green committee has helped. Since its inception, recycling levels have increased by 15 per cent. However, Wright is convinced there is a lot more that can be done.
“I think you have handful of people who are very environmentally conscious and make an effort to recycle all the time,” Wright said. “For the others, it doesn’t seem to be a big deal. I think it has a lot to do with renters.”
For Dennis the super, the black hole he is staring up is attached to a tri-sorter. When the lodged bag gave up the fight and fell into the bin, sure enough it wasn’t sorted in the least. This is nothing new for Dennis.
By Steve Darley
