What’s Toronto’s answer to their littering problem? Bigger garbage bins! I’m talking 7 1/2 feet tall. With ads. Lit up (as in draining electricity from the already strained TO power grid.) That’s taller than Toronto Raptor Loren Woods, who is a measley 7 feet.
Instead of trying to get people to buy less junk, the Toronto city council is testing out the new “EcoMupis” bins, which will carry illuminated billboards selling junk and larger garbage containers for people to put all that added junk they’ll buy after seeing the new ads for the junk.
There are so many things wrong with this plan, that I decided to contact my city councillor, Bill Saundercook, and find out why he decided to opt in on this pilot project (councillors like Olivia Chow wisely passed on the whole plan.)
The conversation was as illuminating as the EcoMupis billboards promise to be. Councillor Saundercook gave the familiar wail of budget crunches, and savings etc. but failed to see how plastering our city’s streets with Raptor-sized ads, that suck electricity, block pedestrians, distract drivers and generally contribute a message of “buy more junk, we’ll take care of it!”, will cost more to the city in the long-run (through addeds strain on the powergrid, the inevitable medical costs resulting from pedestrians not seeing oncoming traffic as they cross, and more garbage going into our Michigan’s landfills.)
Basically the party line is: “It’s better to try these things out and see what the public thinks.”
In my opinion the councillor, and city hall are betting on the apathy of the residents to not say anything about the garbage cans disguised as billboards. I predict that there’ll be a counter-attack to the Monster/Raptor Bins. Toronto’s Public Space Committee will be meeting on Feb 2nd at City Hall. The bins will be high on the agenda and I’ll be there. If you live in Toronto and think we don’t need more ads littering our streets, then I invite you to come along.
Stay tuned for more on this. Today, the monsters are attacking Toronto. Tomorrow it could be your home town (cue B-movie music and sinister laugh.)
