There have, well, "bin" better ways of resolving disputes.

A Pickering single mom with a long-simmering beef with a trash-bin rental company, arrived home from work earlier this week to find a garbage-filled dumpster on her driveway.

"It's right smack in the middle," said Sara Cousins yesterday. "You can't get in."

The lime-green can, clearly marked with a GTA Waste Services sign, was left on her driveway by the Gormley firm on Monday after 10 months of trash talking between the two, Cousins said.

But Cousins said she learned last night that the company had agreed to remove the bin by 4 a.m. today.

It was a change of tune from the company's refusal to remove the bin earlier in the week unless she paid a fee of at least $125 to remove the unsolicited bin -- on top of the $337.24 bill she has refused to pay since March.

'MATTER OF PRINCIPLE'

GTA Waste Services yesterday refused to comment, but Cousins said the bad blood started back in March when she refused to foot the bill for a bin rental because she believed she was overcharged.

"It's not a matter of paying the bill, it's a matter of principle," she said. "I've never had an issue with respect to billing, and then (they) pull this crap?"

Cousins said she'd used the company 10 to 15 times before during the renovation of her house and that she'd only have to pay upwards of $340 when she completely filled a bin.

When she rented a bin again at the end of February until March 4, however, Cousins had only filled about a third of it.

"The price probably should've been somewhere around $240," Cousins said.

Her refusal to pay led to phone calls in vain from the company, but Cousins wouldn't budge.

Cousins was hoping that by today her six-year-old son will have a driveway to play hockey again and that she, as well as her friends and relatives, will be able to park in the driveway over the holidays.

BRETT.CLARKSON@SUNMEDIA.CA