Before I had kids, I had my green bin, and it's still sometimes my favourite. I've considered building it a hut at the curb, like the kind rural children take shelter in waiting for the school bus, only better.
I want the best for my green bin because it is our totem of civic pride. I can barely see the CN Tower over the trees as I make my way to my garage with bags of rotting food. If it were that new tower in Dubai it would be easy to see, I bet. But it's not, which leaves our impressive half-million green bins as the city's most monumental achievement.
So I took it hard last week when the garbage truck rolled up to the curb, the collector dragged himself over, grabbed our green bin and ... dumped it in with the rest of the trash.
The truck was a rear packer, with the back-loading area split into two compartments, a larger compartment on the left for garbage or recycling and a smaller compartment on the right for organics. As I wondered why that collector had dumped the fecund contents of the green bin in with the regular garbage, a swelling pain throbbed behind my ears. To me, composting was the daily vitamin of domestic environmentalism. It reduced waste and pollution and created, well, dirt - but useful dirt.
My back hurt remembering all those times I had bent over in earnest determination to scrape the messy leftovers from dinner plates into the narrow kitchen compost bin.
The air brakes burped and the truck was gone, and with it my carefully collected compost, down the road and on its way to Michigan, where it would become methane and leachate instead of fertilizer that would nurture heritage string beans on the last local farm in the greenbelt.
Perhaps the organics section of the truck was full? Not likely. The truck that showed up at my house was unsullied.
I had another theory: It depended on what side of the street the bins are on. If the bins are on the left side of the road from the driver's point of view, it takes a little longer for the collector to walk the green bin two extra metres to the composting area at the right corner of the truck. Dumping it in with the garbage in the closer corner would save a lot of toe-dragging over a long shift. This would be particularly important for collectors who were feeling a little unwell but had decided to work and bank the sick day for their retirement.
So, was this an isolated injustice or pervasive malpractice? With a third of the city's 300 trucks being rear loaders designed to pick up both trash and organics, the stakes were high for every green-blooded curb composter in Toronto. It was my solemn duty to investigate and report.
January 5
10:12 a.m.
For stakeout patrol, I don a watchcap and bland jacket to be inconspicuous, but also because it's what I wear every day. I slink behind a split-compartment rear loader as it collects from the mansions and rooming houses north of College. The collector has a good run of 12 consecutive green bin slam-dunks before dumping three in with the trash.
10:43 a.m.
Why the breakdown? A scrupulous collector confirms that one reason his co-workers might mix organics in with trash is to reduce the number of times per route they have to wait by the side of the truck while the compacting arm comes down to scoop out the loading area. If the organics side of the loading area reaches capacity before the trash side does, then they might dump subsequent green bin loads in the trash side until that side also reaches capacity, before engaging the compacting arm. Scooping out the loading areas and compacting the material is time-consuming, and by maximizing the loads collected between compactions they finish their routes faster.
"Those are the tricks of the game," says the anonymous collector.
No doubt getting off the route faster is a motivating force when the weather is cold like this. Or hot. Or wet. But there must be a handful of nice days in the spring or fall when no one minds waiting around for the compacting arm to do its job.
11:13 a.m.
One collector is loading trash into a single-compartment truck south of Davenport as the snow blows around his truck. He confirms that reducing compactions can be a time-saving measure: "Guys want to get done early and go home, especially on days like this."
11:42 a.m.
I stalk another collector who dumps six green bins in a row into the trash compartment. He slows down only long enough to glare at my zoom lens before slipping around the corner.
12:02 p.m.
A collector loading trash into a single-compartment truck explains a possible motive for this kind of expedience. "Sometimes the [green-bin side]will fill up before the trash side. If that happens, they might dump organics in the trash side." The strategy here is to clear the route of both garbage and compost at the same time, so that after they've dumped their full truck they don't have to retrace their steps for just the green bins that wouldn't fit in the proper side of the truck.
12:33 p.m.
Heading north, I fall in behind the trash-collection equivalent of a jazz master. Following his own subtle rhythm, he jumps back and forth in and out of key, dumping six green bins properly while mixing nine green-bin loads with the trash. When I ask about his methods, he explains that sometimes his aim is off. Perhaps naively, I ask if the organics portion of the truck body usually fills up before the trash portion. He declines to invoke the full-compartment clause previously explained to me. Instead, he says they usually run out of space for trash first. Perhaps if his aim improved that wouldn't be the case.
2:40 p.m.
At the safehouse
This all might seem like small potato skins for a program that diverts nearly 100,000 tonnes of material from being trucked to the Michigan landfill a year. Nonetheless, it is time for a call to the city. A spokeswoman suggests the collectors might have been suspicious the bins were contaminated with garbage. Though unable to speak for my fellow citizens, I assure her that my compost is pure, right down to the rice grains I pick out of the dustpan after sweeping the floor.
Rob Orpin, director of collection operations, reports that it is an issue they get few, if any, complaints about, but would take seriously.
"Obviously that shouldn't happen," says Mr. Orpin. "It's wrong, and if someone were to call and complain a supervisor would look into it."
I can't help but think they might be busy.
******
Green-bin surveillance primer
THE PROGRAM
Why collectors throw organics in with the rest of the garbage
Toronto's green-bin program was introduced in 2002 to reduce the amount of garbage sent to landfill. By 2008, the bins were turning 19 per cent of Toronto's household trash into compost. All multi-unit buildings will be included next year.
2008 COLLECTION TOTALS
Green bin / 94,201 tonnes
Household waste / 494,539 tonnes
A typical household will produce nearly 200 kg of green-bin waste a year.
DIVERSION RATES
2001: 27%
2008: 44%
******
THE PROBLEM
A Globe and Mail stakeout observed several collectors dumping green bins into the trash section of two-compartment rear-loading trucks. This instance (shown at right) was one of several witnessed Tuesday.
THE FLEET
Of Toronto's 300 residential collection trucks, 165 are designed to collect two materials at a time. The remaining 135 trucks collect one material at a time.
Side-loaders with automated arm / 35
Split-compartment rear-loaders / 115
Single-compartment rear-loaders / 100
Two-compartment side-loaders / 50
HOW COMPACTING TRUCKS WORK:
1. Blade moves out towards tailgate.
2. Compacting mechanism moves downward, covering the refuse, and chopping up bulky items.
3. Blade scoops out contents of hopper. Any bulky items get broken down further.
4..Scoop retracts, pulling the refuse up and into the truck, where the heavy-duty compaction takes place. The force involved is enough to crush a refridgerator.
One- third of Toronto's garbage trucks are rear-loaders with split compartments for collecting two materials at once. If the capacity for green-bin material inside the truck or in the loading hopper fills up before the capacity for trash, collection workers can save time by dumping the green bins in the trash compartment.
Total annual waste production in Canada: 33.2 million tonnes
TONIA COWAN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
PHOTO AND REPORTING: IAN MERRINGER FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL
GRAPHIC SOURCES: GOOGLE 3D WAREHOUSE, CITY OF TORONTO