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Festering summer garbage bin riles Orangeville neighbour

October 19, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS, LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

Imagine living next door to an open garbage bin every hot summer for the last four years.

The trash baking in the sun, heated by the summer humidity, its smell wafting on the wind. Now you have an idea of the kind of summer some Howard Crescent residents have had the last few years.

Though they couldn’t get a nose full of the experience, Orangeville council heard about the grief during its regular meeting Oct. 16.

Frank Nagy, a resident of Howard Crescent in Orangeville, said an increase in home renovations in his neighbourhood over the last four years has led to copious amounts of construction waste and accompanying garbage bins that have become a free-for-all for household garbage.

“And we’re talking very large sized, commercial sized garbage bins,” he said. “They can be anywhere from about five-feet wide to 16-feet long, five-feet high.”

His issue is with the bin that sits in his neighbour’s driveway all summer long “and just festers,” he said.

Nagy said he lives next door to a person who has a garbage bin business or works at one, and his neighbour parks a bin in his driveway at the start of the summer and leaves it there. He’s been doing it for the last four years.

“Until I call bylaw and have bylaw have him remove this thing,” Nagy said. “We don’t love it because we have to live next door to this garbage can.”

He said he’s sent photos to municipal enforcement over the years, and he’s spoken with a number of people on town staff about the issue.

“I’m not the only one,” he said. “There’s other people in the neighbourhood, too. And nobody really loves to see this thing sit there.”

It’s fine that people want to do renovations and improve their homes. But the heart of the problem is a weak bylaw respecting construction in residential areas.

“Being a residential area, sometimes we have house-flippers and different people moving in and then they park these things (bins) there and they just leave them there,” Nagy said.

“They fill them absolutely heaping over the tops.”

Then, other people in the neighbourhood who don’t want to pay GFL to remove garbage use his neighbour’s driveway bin.

“Why do I have to live next door to a garbage bin every single summer?” he said.

The rotting food lures raccoons and skunks, and the animals basically set up shop in the bin’s vicinity.

“I can’t leave my garage door open because I’m afraid something’s going to get in there and make a home in there,” Nagy said. “It’s been very difficult for us.”

Nagy said he’s called bylaw enforcement twice and gotten the same answer. That is: “We don’t have a strong enough bylaw,” he said.

People are allowed to leave a bin in their driveway for 90 days a year. That affords somebody the opportunity to park a bin or Dumpster in their driveway every summer.

“And say, I’m going to throw my garbage in there,” he said. “I don’t care if GFL picked up the garbage. And the rest of us have to live with it.”

Deputy Mayor Todd Taylor asked why Nagy’s neighbour would have a bin in his driveway every year.

Nagy said he assumed the neighbour was moving into their house and doing renovations the first year.

Carolina Khan, the town’s clerk, said the 90-day bin rule is enshrined in the town’s zoning bylaw. Changing that requires an amendment to the bylaw.

“With respect to the particular concerns raised by Mr. Nagy today, we are working with him and have looped in the appropriate divisions in order to get a resolution for this issue,” Khan said.

Councillor Andy Macintosh suggested the garbage bin might be a property standards issue.

“If the garbage bin is full, it needs to go,” he said.

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