Windsor mom concerned autistic son could be locked in new green bin

Green Bin Lock – Emergency Release Mechanism

When homeowners, especially those with kids/pets have a change in their home, such as a new appliance, furniture, pool or in this case a Green Bin with a lock, they naturally evaluate risk. The EWSWA understands this and appreciates the opportunity to have dialog on how to address this concern. While the GB Gravity lock does have a special emergency release mechanism on the lid of the lock, it may not be suitable in rare situations.

The design of the GB and its components, including the lock were established by benchmarking other municipal programs across Ontario and hence why we requested an emergency release mechanism in the design. The EWSWA also included the lock to address concerns raised from a past survey that was done where pests was a top concern of residents. There are over 1.5 million bins with locks used across Ontario alone for municipal waste programs to keep pests out and food waste in. Toronto, Peel Region, Peterborough, Brantford all use bins with locks and many more will include them in the coming years such as Region of Waterloo, Thunder Bay that will add another 300,00 bins with locks to Ontario.

We do understand that there may be a rare few instances where a homeowner may consider this lock to be a concern for their household and if that is the case, they are welcome to remove the lock as its installed with a few simple screws. They are welcome to call our 1-800-563-3377 hotline to discuss and receive support, as we do want to support the diversion of food waste for all homeowners.

• The emergency release is located on the TOP portion of the lock – this is located on the LID.
• The emergency release is NOT located on the portion of the lock that is seated on the body of the Green Bin.
• All you have to do is ‘push in’  on the metal part of the lock (see screen shot below – orange circle) – the emergency release pushes in easily.