Junction Triangle residents have had enough of the putrid smell that hangs over their neighbourhood, forcing them to shut their windows and abandon their backyards.

For years they’ve lived with the odour emanating from the Nitta Gelatin plant, where pig skins are turned into gelatin.

Vegetarian Simon Menahem noticed the stench within a few weeks of moving to the neighbourhood. He could tell it was animal related right away.

“I said to my friend, ‘It smells like rotting carcass,’ ” said Menahem, who came to a community meeting last Wednesday calling for a permanent solution to the stinky situation.

Nitta is the latest in a series of old Toronto companies that have run afoul of changing expectations in a gentrifying neighbourhood, often with new condo-dwelling residents who have little patience for the less pleasant aspects of industrial production.

Neighbours have complained to Nitta, the city, and the province’s Environment Ministry. The stench will disappear for weeks or even months at a time, they say, then reappear randomly, ruining parties and hampering the quality of life.

The smell is embarrassing, said Whitney Miller, who has lived in the area for 10 years. She’s never gotten used to the offensive odour.

“You can almost feel it,” she said. “It soaks into you.”

The plant has stood on Paton Rd. for more than a century, churning out a variety of products from turkey to processed cheese. Nitta Gelatin took over in 1990 and started making gelatin for use in food and pharmaceutical products. Since then, the company has spent a lot of money trying to mitigate odours, said product manager Randy Robinson.

“When I say to you that Nitta is dedicated to removing all the odours, they are,” he said.

Neighbours are still unhappy, however, and they’re unsure where they should be channeling their frustration.

The city doesn’t have the tools to deal with the situation, said Davenport Councillor Ana Bailao, who has heard a lot about the smell over the three and a half years she has represented the community. Toronto Public Health has determined the plant’s emissions aren’t toxic, and the plant isn’t violating zoning or municipal licensing laws.

“We’re doing everything in our power to make sure that we can have these two members of our community, the residents and the plant, operating here,” Bailao said. “Because that’s what everybody wants.”

She encourages residents to file complaints to the provincial Environment Ministry and the company whenever they’re bothered by the smell.

The ministry has received 106 complaints about odours at Nitta Gelatin since 2003, including 52 complaints in 2014.

“The ministry continues to monitor odour issues and regularly visits the Nitta Gelatin facility in response to complaints from local residents,” spokesperson Kate Jordan said in an email.

Last year the ministry asked Nitta to submit an odour mitigation plan, and the company has proposed changing equipment and putting up taller stacks, which would disperse the emissions higher in the air. To do that, however, they need the province to approve their plan, which is expected to happen in the next several weeks.

In the meantime, the plant has changed the way it disposes of the waste water that separates out the grease byproduct, Robinson said, and the change seems to have reduced the odour in recent weeks.

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Residents agree the smell hasn’t been as pungent lately, but aren’t convinced the problem is permanently solved.

“To me, it sounds like they’re tinkering,” Miller said. “I’m not optimistic.”

Similar complaints came from condo dwellers near King and Bathurst Sts. last summer about smells from a nearby slaughterhouse wafting through their windows, and in 2012, Nestle tried to dissuade city council from allowing a new development on land near the company’s Sterling Rd. factory, in part out of fears of future backlash.