Through the arched window

Toronto EcoMupi pt2, or 'you look bigger in real life'

I have previously blogged about the new Eucan EcoMupi design of recycling bin that the City of Toronto is considering for our sidewalks, something like 2,500 of them. In my research on these bins and what they will mean for the streets Toronto I have come up with some interesting (to me anyway) questions.

A lot of what I know about the EcoMupi design comes from a Toronto staff report to the Works Committee. The report includes an image of the EcoMupi next to the existing SilverBox design for comparison purposes (page 13) . The size of the new design is a pretty important issue as many of the concerns around the visual impact, safety and overall suitability of the design revolve around its height (2.3 m, 7.5 feet). So having a picture which shows the current and proposed bins side by side seems like a useful visual aid for Councilors, and anyone else who is interested.

Here's the problem though: In the City report the image of the EcoMupi is distorted so that it appears 0.42 m (1'4") shorter than it actually is. To add further to the problems, this same comparison image is used in a document available on the Toronto Public Space Committee web site which TPSC tell me is a leak of Eucan's EcoMupi pitch. If that is the case and the City are just recycling an image supplied by the people with most to gain from this deal, EuCan, which seriously understates the controverisial height of the design then I think that needs to be seriously looked at.

I became even more concerned about the problems with the image when I found this excerpt in a Toronto Star article from July 9, 2004:

Pitfield (Ward 26, Don Valley West) noted her colleagues have only seen pictures of the bin, not the real thing. "Considering none of us has seen this thing, it's crucial that we would have a pilot study," she said.

Councilor Pitfield is the Chair of the Toronto Council Works Committee, who are in charge of making key decisions relating to the EcoMupi proposal. The fact that she and her colleagues may have made the decision to go ahead with a pilot even partly on the basis of a misleading image, possibly provided by Eucan themselves, would greatly concern me.

I have contacted Councilor Pitfield, Mayor Miller and Councilor Pantalone (my representative on Council) to ask for their comments and response on this issue. I will update this post if and when I hear from them.

The PDF document detailing my calculations can be downloaded from here.

UPDATE December 29, 2004
I have now had responses from Councillors Pitfield and Pantalone and Mayor Miller. Apparently a prototype EcoMupi was available for inspection outside City Hall for a day or two before the matter was voted on in Council, which does remove some of my concerns. I think the following statement from Councillor Jane Pitfield probably fairly sums up the position on the discrepancies in the image I raised:

'As the exact dimensions were always provided, I am not of the opinion that there was any intention on the part of the City or of Eucan to understate the height of the proposed bin.'

So, I am to trust that Eucan weren't trying to mislead the City. I would still be a little concerned about dealing with a company that uses incompetent graphic artists to produce an important presentation to the City and apparently doesn't have anyone smart enough to spot the mistake. But perhaps I am being unfair.

posted by Patrick ASD @ 4:50 PM