CITY COUNCIL AND MAYOR MILLER VOTE TO DELAY THE INSTALLATION OF 1,000 NEW RECYCLING BINS July 20th, 2004 City Council voted today not to install 1,000 new recycling bins as requested by City Staff. Instead, they chose to test-drive a proposal from a private company to install 7.5 foot illuminated billboards attached to recycling bins. The Billboard-Bins, called "EcoMupis" are a step backwards for the environment, are a dangerous obstacle on the sidewalk and will also increase visual pollution. In his speech to City Council, Mayor Miller put forward some very misleading statements about the proposal: 1) Mayor Miller told City Council that the EcoMupis will actually reduce advertising in Toronto. FACT: Eucan has offered to remove all of the ads from the old "Silver Boxes" if they are allowed to install the EcoMupis. Technically, this could result in less square footage of ads. But the EcoMupis are twice as high, and are illuminated at night, so the visual impact on the urban landscape will be much greater. The contract will also be extended under the new plan (more years x less ads = more ads!) 2) Mayor Miller also stated that the City is obligated to continue to have garbage bins with ads on them and are not legally in a position to tender new contracts. FACT: The City is only obligated to maintain the number of OMG bins that are currently on the streets. Nothing prevents the City from installing new bins, without advertising, through an open tender process. In fact, the proposal from EUCAN is to have their contract extended an extra five years, until 2015! The Mayor claims that we're stuck in a corner, when the reality is that he's digging us deeper into a hole. The green solution before City Council was simple. All they had to do was vote in favour of Councillor Joe Mihevc's motion to support the staff recommendation to install 1,000 new recycling bins without advertising. The decision today puts more ads on the streets, wastes enormous amounts of electricity, and takes a step toward extending the Eucan contract, without tender, until 2015. Once again, City Council is selling off another piece of public space in the interests of the advertising industry and at the expense of the environment and the quality of life on our streets. >> Back to Monster Garbage Cans page

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