More power to the people, less to the EcoMupi
It has been recommended to me that if I wish to increase the readership of TTAW beyond single digits, I should lay off on writing about garbage cans. But I'm going to ignore that advice at least long enough to write this post. To catch up on what an EcoMupi is you can read previous posts here and here. The short version is that an EcoMupi is a 7.5 foot tall billboard masquerading as a garbage can produced by the company Eucan. The Toronto City Council is currently considering allowing Eucan to place EcoMupis on the city's streets by the thousand with the decision locked in by contract until 2015.
I have several concerns with the suitability of the design of the EcoMupi, one of which is the fact that the advertisements which they display are backlit with the (unnecessary) power consumption that entails. The power consumption figures for the EcoMupi were supplied to me by Kevin Vibert from Solid Waste Management Services at the City of Toronto: Each EcoMupi uses 4 fluorescent bulbs rated at 80W to light its advertising panels. It is estimated that the displays will be lit for an average of 8 hours per day. So each unit would consume 934.4 kWh of electrical power per year.
So how about some context for those, including me, who don't readily think in KWh. Well the Hydro One site tells us that the average electricity consumption for a newly built home in Ontario is 7,000 KWh per year. That is 7.5 EcoMupis would use the same amount of electricity in a year as one new build home. So the 2,500 EcoMupis that are being considered would use the same amount of electricity per year as 333 new homes.
This proposal is being seriously considered, with a pilot underway, by the same the same City that asks the residents of Toronto for their 'commitment to limit lifestyle choices that put more CO2 in the atmosphere'. This City Council is considering giving EuCan, a private company, rights to install thousands of large billboards on our streets using a very significant amount of electricity which would contribute directly to problems of greenhouse gas emissions and smog.
I understand that balances between competing needs have to be found to reduce costs, particularly when the City is so cash strapped. However I am not convinced that this trade is a good one for the people of Toronto - giving Eucan the option to install thousands of large backlit billboards in return for providing the bins which hide within them. In fact the City Staff Report to the Works Committee on the options available agrees, their recommendation is that the city purchase the 1,000 additional recycling bins (without advertising) that they estimate the city needs rather than entering into this agreement with Eucan. My hope is that enough members of the public will voice their concerns to City Council once they see the pilot bins and that Council turns back from the EcoMupi option they seem to be pursuing.
If you want to contact your Councillor about this issue, or anything else, you can find their contact details, including email address, through this page.
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