It’s the stuff municipal-infrastructure-nerd dreams are made of: new sidewalk garbage bins. Reddit user BexterV posted these photos of some sleek new black, rectangular receptacles being installed on King Street today. But don’t plan the funeral procession for the hated foot-pedal operated bins quite yet: these new — dare we say, handsome — bins are only being installed where more sidewalk space is needed.

“This is a new model of bin that has been developed to work with the existing complement of litter bins and street furniture,” a spokesperson from City of Toronto said in an email. “It was developed for purposes of siting on narrow streets where there is not sufficient room for the pod-style [bins] or where the sidewalk would benefit from having additional space for pedestrian movement. These bins will be used selectively around the city, although many of them may appear in the downtown where there are narrower sidewalks and more pedestrian activity.”

So, a foot-pedal-less future may still a ways off, but in the meantime downtowners have a some shiny new boxes in which to shove their filthy detritus.  

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Michael Kolberg is The Sprawl Editor at Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter for jokes @mikeykolberg.

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