The red-and-white stickers read: “Transit customer use only.”
It’s a simple, blunt message slapped on hundreds of Calgary Transit trash cans — but it still leaves room for a few questions. Can passersby toss in an empty coffee cup or trash littering the street? Yes. What about that old DVD player? Please don’t. Are there fines? Well, it’s a public space, so no… but please don’t.
“We’re in total understanding if someone walks by with an empty Starbucks cup,” says Ron Collins, a Calgary Transit spokesperson. “They can toss it in, obviously.”
The stickers are there to let Calgarians know that dumping household trash (a growing “trend”) in the transit garbage bins is not welcome, says Collins.
However, there is no bylaw saying people can’t stuff the transit bins — or any public trashcan for that matter — to the rim with garbage, says Bill Bruce, the city’s top bylaw officer.
“These are put out by a public authority in a public place,” says Bruce. “We don’t have a bylaw specific enough to say ‘You’re not a transit passenger, you can’t put your garbage there.'”
However, putting trash in other people’s garbage cans or littering can result in fines up to $250 and $750 respectively, he adds.
Comments: 1
APS wrote:
Anyone ever seen a recliner / sofa / mattress / appliance dumped at the rear of a mall or near a business trash bin ? Prior to our recycling program being introduced, has anyone ever seen any non recyclables just dumped near the bins ? Remember the story a while back of all the local dumbdumbs dumping unwanted items into all the Salvation Army bins and the Salvation Army then had to pay themselves to take it to the dump ? Too many times to mention I bet.
Individuals in the city need to take ownership of what they purchase and how they dispose of it. End of story.
It's really great to see that time and money is being spent on brainstorming up these signs, having them made in a print shop and then sticking them up everywhere. many of Calgary's other bylaws are rarely enforced, how are they thinking this will help. They may as well make the stickers flesh colored to look like a bandaid.
Curious if the guy in front of me on 14th street that threw his half eaten apple out his car window last week saw the new signs....?
on Jun 3rd, 2010 at 4:05pm Report Abuse
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