Residents along Plunkett Road near Islington and Steeles Avenues say giant piles of garbage have been growing for months, stinking up the street and attracting animals, leaving bags shredded open with bits of household waste strewn about the street.
Mirtha Coronel lives in the Emery Village neighbourhood, and she says the situation has been going on since last fall.
“This isn’t just empty recycle, washed out, recycle bins. This is toilet paper,” said Coronel, who points out they were told that residential garbage gets picked up as long as it’s tagged.
“Work was done to inform the local residents to tag their garbage. But even that sat there for weeks and weeks and weeks. So that didn’t hold true either,” she explained.
“I think part of what’s been contributing to this is that people see garbage, a pile of garbage, and now start to interpret that pile of garbage as a dumping ground.”
Coronel says she’s called 311 as well as reached out on the City’s social media accounts and talked to her local councillor, only to be told, “We’re working on it.”
In a written statement to CityNews, a spokesperson for the City said in part, “Since 2011, the City has received over 80 complaints regarding waste and illegal dumping at the address, all of which have been investigated and responded to.”
The City declined to comment on if another investigation was underway.
Area councillor Anthony Peruzza says the issue is with a small number of residents and businesses along the stretch of roadway.
“As you can see, we have a few very dirty slobs,” he tells CityNews. “There’s some people here who are unregistered. They refuse to be part of the registered collection program. So the garbage is coming out illegally. It doesn’t have tags. It doesn’t have bins.”
Peruzza says multiple city departments are working on a change of strategy, adding that the next step is to get “very, very aggressive” when it comes to enforcement.
“We need to change people’s habits. We need to make them understand that there’s a way to take out your garbage and get it collected.”
