Waste_Inbox

A Tale of Three Cities: Toronto isn´t the only place where residents are suffering the effects of erratic trash collection this summer. Add Gary, Ind., and Windsor, Ontario, to the list.

In Gary (for those struggling to remember where you´ve heard that city´s name lately, it´s where Michael Jackson grew up), trash has been accumulating on tree lawns and curbsides for more than a week since the City Council voted to reject a contract with Allied Waste Industries Inc. The trouble began last fall when Mayor Rudy Clay decided to cut costs by privatizing the city´s trash collection. A court later voided the city´s contract with Allied because the council hadn´t voted on it and the district had failed to open up a public bidding process.

Now the Gary Post-Tribune is reporting that the Gary City Council yesterday approved a monthly trash collection fee for Gary residents, paving the way for trash pickups to resume today.

In Windsor, city workers who collect garbage have been on strike for 15 weeks. Not surprisingly, the Detroit Free Press reports, trash is overflowing waste containers across the city and people´s nerves are fraying. But -- newsflash -- the Canadian Post reports that a tentative agreement was reached this morning following a marathon 46-hour session of talks over the last two days. The union is scheduled to hold a ratification vote tomorrow.

In Toronto, where trash collectors and other city workers have been striking since June 22, there appears to be no end in sight. In the latest news, UPI reports that a city council member yesterday riled striking union workers by staging his own private trash collection event in a neighborhood in the northwestern part of the city.

Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste & Recycling News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive.

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