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Tim Hortons wants you to get out of your car (6 photos)

In the interests of 'waste diversion' accuracy

Soon you may not be able to throw out your old coffee cups at any Tim Hortons drive-thrus.

In what appears to be a part of a Canada-wide “waste diversion program”, a visual survey on Sunday found that four out of eight Tim Hortons restaurants in Sault Ste. Marie have removed the garbage and recycling bins from their drive-thrus.

Phone calls to locations in Blind River and Espanola revealed that they had removed their drive-thru garbage and recycling bins as well, while locations in Elliot Lake and Wawa still had them.

“It was a decision made by corporate,” said Trunk Road and Boundary Road location owner Romina Fata who would not comment further citing company policy.

"The recent changes we’ve made to the placement of our exterior waste and recycling units are meant to improve the accuracy and efficiency of our waste diversion program. Our goal with the new waste and recycling unit locations is to provide our guests with enough time to sort materials into the appropriate compartments, which can be difficult in a quick-moving Drive Thru lane," said a Tim Hortons spokesperson in an e-mail.

The spokesperson declined an interview request.

 

Calls to Tim Hortons Guest Services shed more light on the changes.

In a call made to Guest Services on Friday a representative said that on April 22 an internal-message was sent out to every Tim Hortons location across Canada telling franchise-owners to move the garbage and recycling bins out of the drive-thru locations into other parts of their parking lots citing environmental concerns about recycling ending up in landfills.

The representative said that customers were in such a rush at the drive-thru that they were throwing their waste in the wrong slots and mixing up recycling and general-garbage and also that waste was ending up on the ground.

The strategy is intended to force customers to take the time to sort their waste properly by making them get out of their vehicle.

A phone survey of 50 Tim Hortons locations across Canada on Monday found that only 26 per cent said they had removed their garbage bins from the drive-thru.

“I can’t understand why they would do that,” said Steve Fronzi, owner of two Sault Ste. Marie Country Style restaurants that have drive-thrus and offer very similar fare to Tim Hortons.

Fronzi said he would not consider removing the garbage bins from his locations as they are used so frequently that they need to be emptied twice a day.

“I think my customers would be a little upset and we’d probably get comments from every other car,” he said.

A drive around Sault Ste. Marie last week found that roughly half of all types of local fast-food restaurants with drive-thrus, not just Tim Hortons, have garbage bins accessible to car drivers.

As of Sunday the Tim Hortons locations in Sault Ste. Marie that have removed their drive-thru bins are:

  • 410 - 412 McNabb St.
  • 223 Second Line W.
  • 191 Trunk Rd.
  • 699 Trunk Rd.

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Jeff Klassen

About the Author: Jeff Klassen

Jeff Klassen is a SooToday staff reporter who is always looking for an interesting story
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