City launching new online tool to answer questions
Type in your item and find out what goes in blue bin, organics and garbage
By Kris Scheuer
I write about garbage, recycling and organics. A lot.
I have dug through rotting trash for stories to find out why people in Toronto still put so much garbage at the curb. And I am still confused at times about what can be recycled and what has to be trashed.
To make the whole mess simpler, the city has launched a new web search tool. See it for yourself.
Let’s pick five items as examples: cooking oil, human hair, TV, dental floss and plastic bags.According to the city, you should not pour cooking oil down the sink, drain or toilet as it messes with the sewer system. Instead, take it to a waste depot or freeze it so it is solid and then put it out with organics in the green bin.
Human or pet hair should go into the garbage.
Televisions can be placed out on garbage night beside your bin and is collected separately by the city or you can drop them off at a recycling and waste depot. The city aims to sell them, if they are in good working order, at reuse centres.
Dental floss – trash it.
Retail plastic bags can be recycled in the blue bin (if you are not reusing it or better yet avoid them and use cloth bags instead).
Whereas, right now plastic bags used for milk, frozen vegetables, bubble wrap, etc are not recycled and go in the garbage.
Check the site out for yourself. If you can not find the answer ’cause the item you search for is not on the city’s database list, you can click on feedback and ask them to add it to the list with an answer. Or call 311 and ask. Good luck.
Kris Scheuer 