{"id":1469,"date":"2007-01-18T16:38:56","date_gmt":"2007-01-18T20:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2013-01-21T12:55:19","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T17:55:19","slug":"bye-bye-monster-bins-hello-more-headaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/01\/18\/bye-bye-monster-bins-hello-more-headaches\/","title":{"rendered":"Bye-bye monster bins, hello more headaches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/images\/assets\/178143_3.JPG\" \/><\/p>\n<p>EUCAN, the owners of the monster bins and silver boxes, have new owners who are re-branding the company Ecomedia. And the new owners have made every attempt to distance themselves from their arrogant predecessors.<\/p>\n<p>Two weeks ago, Ecomedia president Craig Marwood called <em>Spacing<\/em> to let us know they were not fans of the monster bins and were beginning the process of removing the offending waste receptacles. Marwood even asked us to provide a list of the most offensive bins and he would make sure they were removed. A list of 15 the worst offenders was fired off (we also stated that all of them should be removed and replaced with the silver boxes or the city&#8217;s black and blue wire garbage bins). This week, our list of bins, plus others submitted by community groups, residents, councillors and BIAs, are moving off the streets.<\/p>\n<p>But the monster bins are not exactly dead. Marwood said he was pleased to see the quality of materials used to make the ECO-MUPIs (the official name of the monster\/mega bins). He hopes the bins from the street will eventually make their way onto the properties of industrial complexes and suburban corporate offices (aka business parks). Take out the ad and place the logo of the company on which the bin sits, install it near the smoking area of the property, and the bin becomes much more appropriate and no longer a pedestrian obstacle.<\/p>\n<p>It seems obvious that the new owners of the bins have their wits about them unlike the previous regime at EUCAN. The former monster bin owners were completely inept at public relations and unintentionally went out of their way to court bad press (anyone remember EUCAN ignoring all the results of a City-sanctioned survey except for the one part that was positive about the bins? Or smear job they try to pull of the Toronto Public Space Committee? <a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=1050\">Read about both stunts in this post<\/a>). Ecomedia wasn&#8217;t aware of these shenanigans until our conversation.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen if Ecomedia is just <em>talking the talk<\/em>. I certainly appreciate their candor, and since they&#8217;re not bidding on the new street furniture contract, there is no long-term vested interest is being nice guys. On the other hand, as owners of the garbage bin contract that lasts until Oct. 2009, they have to pay the City fees ($20 per can, per month) plus a share of ad revenue. Now, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/article\/172330\">the owners have had to re-negotiate the deal that sends money to City<\/a> (which means residents of Toronto are receiving much less money than guaranteed in writing). I have little knowledge of how these type of contracts work, but I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m alone when I say I can&#8217;t understand how a contract, once signed, can be re-opened. If you promise the City <em>X<\/em> amount of money, that&#8217;s what you have to give. If you can&#8217;t generate the revenue to pay the bills you take out a loan, don&#8217;t shaft Torontonians. I&#8217;d expect councillors to stick up for us, but we&#8217;re short on representatives willing to be brave in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, the chair of the Works Committee, <span id=\"ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___BodyLineup__\">Glenn De Baeremaeker, is one of our weak-kneed councillors when it comes to ad-creep who continues to be an <\/span><span id=\"ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___BodyLineup__\">apologist<\/span><span id=\"ctl00_ContentPlaceHolder_article_NavWebPart_Article_ctl00___BodyLineup__\">s for the ad-funded street furniture program. He has not shown any kind of sophisticated knowledge of <\/span>how bad public-private ad revenue partnerships can go (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.spacing.ca\/archives\/33\/\">read my article from the current Spacing issue<\/a> that outlines the last three years of ad creep in Toronto). He was even put in his place by Janet Davis, an allied councillor, early in 2006 (<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/?p=1330\">watch the YouTube video of it<\/a>). <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/article\/172330\">In the Star today<\/a>, De Baermaeker is even taken to task by one council&#8217;s least-effective councillors, Denzil Minnan-Wong. When one of the city&#8217;s most conservative councillors starts to wonder publicly about the financial rewards of an ad-funded street furniture program, you know the project is bound to flop.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t have to look far if want to see the lack of success Toronto has had in the last 10 years selling off its essential infrastructure. No one in this situation, besides the advertiser, is winning. And how is that good for the residents\u00a0 or government of Toronto?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Article links:<\/strong><br \/>\n&bull; Goodbye to the megabins [ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/article\/172049\"><em>Toronto Star<\/em><\/a> ]<br \/>\n&bull; City loses out on promised bin revenue [ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thestar.com\/News\/article\/172330\"><em>Toronto Star<\/em><\/a> ]<br \/>\n&bull; City to downsize &#8220;unloved&#8221; megabins [ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.canada.com\/nationalpost\/news\/toronto\/story.html?id=9b6e1c01-a143-4c05-abab-eddf0d787231\"><em>National Post<\/em><\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EUCAN, the owners of the monster bins and silver boxes, have new owners who are re-branding the company Ecomedia. And the new owners have made every attempt to distance themselves from their arrogant predecessors. Two weeks ago, Ecomedia president Craig Marwood called Spacing to let us know they were not fans of the monster bins<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/01\/18\/bye-bye-monster-bins-hello-more-headaches\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Bye-bye monster bins, hello more headaches&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,32],"tags":[11,4350,976,408,4349,4351,905,2704,641,475,4352,405,19,435,341,391,904,3407],"class_list":["post-1469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-streetscape","tag-ad-creep","tag-allied-councillor","tag-chair","tag-councillor","tag-craig-marwood","tag-ecomedia","tag-glenn-de-baeremaeker","tag-janet-davis","tag-national-post","tag-president","tag-public-relations","tag-the-star","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-public-space-committee","tag-toronto-star","tag-usd","tag-works-committee","tag-youtube"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bye-bye monster bins, hello more headaches - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/01\/18\/bye-bye-monster-bins-hello-more-headaches\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bye-bye monster bins, hello more headaches - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EUCAN, the owners of the monster bins and silver boxes, have new owners who are re-branding the company Ecomedia. 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