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Retire Your Ride, OARA and Standard Auto Wreckers
Help "Green" The Environment |
| Written by News CRM |
| Monday, 16 November 2009 |
| TORONTO, ON - November 16, 2009 -- A local environmental group, 10,000 Trees for the Rouge, is a lot greener today thanks to support from OARA and Standard Auto Wreckers.
The Ontario Automotive Recyclers Association (OARA) has just made a very substantial donation to supporting a local green initiative here in Toronto, Canada. The donation went to a very worthy organization called 10,000 Trees for the Rouge.
As fate would have it the amount of the donation was for $10,000 and it will be used to further the mission of this charity organization, 10,000 Trees (www.10000trees.com) which is a volunteer group dedicated to restoring natural habitat in the Rouge River watershed.
OARA operates the call center for the Retire Your Ride program in Ontario and has also played an important part in establishing the auto recycler's code of practice which has been implemented to support the program by the Automotive Recyclers of Canada. Their contribution represents a portion of the fees paid to the program by auto recycling facilities.
Retire your Ride is a national vehicle recycling program offered through the Government of Canada and the Clean Air Foundation (now Summerhill). The program’s goal is simple, to get cars from model year 1995 and older off the road to reduce air pollution.
This charity was chosen by the co-owner of Standard Auto Wreckers (www.standardautowreckers.com) David Gold, when asked about his choice David said; We have been working with 10,000 Trees for the Rouge for a while now, through our other charity programs and we thought this contribution could make a real difference to an important local environmental project."
We caught up with Colin Creasey from 10,000 Trees and he said; "This donation came as a bit of a surprise and it will come in very handy by helping us further our cause of turning abandoned fields into growing forests! In fact we celebrated our 20th anniversary this year and could not have asked for a better gift. We would like to send a special thanks to Standard Auto Wreckers and the OARA (www.oara.com) for making a real difference in the community."
"During tough times and even at the tail-end of a recession that has crippled much of North America and the world it is a great feeling to see charitable giving continue," says David Gold. |
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City tries to force auto wrecker out of Rouge Park: business owner
Councillor wants to ban parking on Sewells Road
BY MIKE ADLER
June 12, 2008 04:42 PM
Owners of a Scarborough wrecking yard say their customers are not to blame for the frequent illegal dumping along a road in the Rouge Park.
Standard Auto Wreckers faces a complete ban on parking and stopping around its location on Sewells Road and Steeles Avenue after a city investigation found dumping "appearing to be related" to its customers.
A report to Scarborough Community Council this week stated some of the parking on Sewells is "unsafe," though it added "a significant collision history has not manifested itself."
Co-owner Ken Gold called those conclusions "totally false" and suggested councillors were trying to force his 40-year-old business out of the park.
"You're going to lose about 30 jobs" if the no-stopping regulations along 200 metres of Steeles and on Sewells from Steeles to Old Finch Avenue are put in place, he said in an interview this week.
Dumping of a variety of trash is persistent on Sewells south of the wrecking yard, a rural road where enforcement is difficult.
Staff say they are recommending the "no stopping" zones to stop illegal dumping as well as "unsafe stopping, standing and parking activities" around the wrecking yard.
During the meeting, Ward 38 (Scarborough Centre) Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker said he supports the regulations, adding in the past he'd seen "these cars park right up to the railway tracks" at a Canadian National Railway crossing on Sewells.
It's fortunate no one was hurt as a result, he said.
De Baeremaeker also said he had witnessed Standard Auto customers littering, "people taking off their tailpipe and tossing the tailpipe into the ditch."
The area is a mess, he said. "We will have to hire a police officer 60 hours a week to stop illegal parking and dumping."
After the meeting, during which the matter was put off until January at his company's request, Gold said De Baeremaker was exaggerating, making something he had seen once seem routine.
Gold said police and his security guards tell customers not to park illegally and barriers were put up along the rails years ago.
"On Saturday, it gets a little busy. Big deal," Gold said. "It's a two-lane road, what do you expect?"
De Baeremaeker, an environmentalist, is "a blinded individual" hostile to businesses in the park, said Gold, adding his customers would take a parking ban personally. "Frogs and salamanders don't work, pay taxes and vote, people do."
Among the 10 people ready to speak on Gold's behalf were a high school shop teacher, a sculptor and a filmmaker, each of whom has used the wrecker's yard for materials.
Gold said he's been wrong to keep a low profile. "I know I'm in the Rouge Park and I tried to hide from them; I shouldn't have."
The report credits Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River) Councillor Raymond Cho with the idea of posted no-stopping zones to discourage dumping but this week it was Cho who asked for the delay, saying the environment is important but employment equally so.
Ward 39 (Scarborough-Agincourt) Councillor Mike Del Grande noted staff had not reported any violation history for Standard Auto. The report "insinuates there is a problem with this business" but does not back that up, he said.
But Ward 44 (Scarborough East) Councillor Ron Moeser said his first choice would be relocating the business, adding he found using Sewells to be a challenge. "I don't take the road anymore, not on a busy day."
Rouge Park's general manager Lewis Yeager said he believes Standard Auto "are pretty vigorous about being good corporate partners" and that the business and its employees "probably do what they can do" to discourage dumping.
The different regulations may help, but some people will ignore the rules unless they are vigorously enforced by bylaw officers or police, Yeager said.
The park is still waiting for the city to fund Rouge Rangers, a new enforcement staff for the park who can catch the lawbreakers and assist visitors. |
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 - June 11/2008
Anti-littering signs delayed for Rouge Park
Scarborough Community Council has voted to defer a plan to post "no stopping" signs along Sewells Road, part of an effort to stop the illegal dumping of garbage in Rouge Park.
The signs are supposed to discourage people from sneaking into the park to unload trash, especially near the site of an auto wrecking facility.
The new signs are expected to cost the city about $10,000. Toronto says it already spends $100,000 per year clearing away the illegal garbage in the area.
Standard Auto Wreckers says it opposes the new signs because it would take away parking for its customers and could lead to job losses.
The six-month delay agreed to on Tuesday gives the city and Standard Auto Wreckers time to negotiate.
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But Jim Robb, spokesman for Friends of the Rouge, says the park is no place for an auto wrecking yard, no matter how environmentally conscious the operators are. "The recycling of autos is a great thing, but in the current location it's right next to a stream," said Robb. "I think, probably, long term, the location of a wrecking yard inside one of the largest urban wildlife parks in North America is probably not a good idea."
The environmental group wants the city to begin negotiations with the company to relocate the facility. |
Aerial Shot of Standard Auto Wreckers Toronto.
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- June 10/2008
City looking at tough measures to control
Illegal dumping in Rouge Park
A Scarborough auto-wrecking business that regularly wins environmental awards says it has been put in
a difficult position — opposing proposed measures to clean up Rouge Park.
Standard Auto Wreckers opened 30 years ago, before the park was created. But the city believes some of
its customers are illegally dumping garbage and old auto parts in the park.Company owner Ken Gold says he
fears his company is going to suffer
because of the scofflaws.
City officials want to put up "No
Stopping Anytime" signs along
Sewells Road and through Rouge Park, between Steeles Avenue and Finch Avenue, including the
section in front of Standard Auto Wreckers, to discourage people from tossing trash in the woods.
But Gold says law-abiding customers will have no place to park, and his business will suffer and "would
eliminate at least 30 jobs."The park already has no dumping signs and each violator faces fines of up to $50,000.
Gold keeps his part of the road spotless. But drive south and it's |
Shingles dumped on Littles Road are an example of the garbage problem in the area. |
easy to find what the city wants to clean
up: two benches from a minivan, a broken white toilet, a purple bathroom rug.
"A lot of people just like to throw bags of garbage," said Gold. "Now that some municipalities charge a
dollar a bag, [for garbage removal] ... people just drive down the street and throw it right out the side.
I've seen them do it. Try and catch them is another story."
'Most of the time you get up in the morning
and there's a new load of garbage.'
—Andy Labonte, farmer
Andy Labonte, a farmer, has lived on Sewells Road for 27 years, and says better enforcement at night is
the key."Most of the time you get up in the morning and there's a new load of garbage."
Coun. Raymond Cho agrees tougher enforcement patrols are necessary, and possibly even surveillance
cameras may be in store for the park.
The councillor says those steps will tell those who dump in the park that "the city really means
business."
Cho says the new signs are just a first step in an attempt to keep a lid on the illegal dumping.
But, he predicts, the problem will only get worse under Toronto's new pay- per-bag garbage program. |
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