Green bin use in Ottawa growing, but not by much

Ottawa's green bin use is up, but not by much according to a new report and city officials are promising more waste options are coming that "won't all be pretty."

A report — presented to the city's standing committee on environmental protection, water and waste management Monday — showed the number of households using green bins to dispose of organic waste grew to 58 per cent in 2020. That's up from just 50 per cent in 2018.

It's not quite the uptake the city was hoping for.

"We're going in the right direction," said Coun. Scott Moffatt, chair of the committee. "We're increasing the usage in the green bin. We're increasing diversion [from landfills]. We're not getting there fast enough."

Over the last few years, the city had made a number of changes to try and get more people participating in the green bin program.

In July 2019, it began allowing plastic bags in green bins to address the "yuck factor," a move which officials at the time said would cost the city an extra $626,000 a year.

It started allowing dog poop to be thrown in the bins and also made more people eligible to use green bins by introducing a new collection contract for multi-residential properties.

Additionally, the city spent $448,163 on an awareness campaign to educate residents about the program, but still only had an eight per cent increase in household usage to show for all its efforts, according to the report.

"I don't know how much easier we can make using the green bin," Moffatt said.

Future of waste 'more important than the election'

Monday's report showed the city sent five per cent more tonnage in 2019 over 2018 to Convertus, the company that Ottawa has its waste processing contract with. There was a further six per cent increase in 2020.

It links the possibility of the pandemic as the reason for more waste, with more people spending time at home and cooking.

The increase in waste is why city officials will be releasing another report next month on Ottawa's waste management plan that will present options for dealing with residents' garbage.

• Ever wonder where all your green bin slop goes?
• 'Smelly and gross' green bins major barrier to increased use: study

The goal will be to meet provincial diversion targets — 70 per cent of food and organic waste generated by single-family homes by 2023, and 50 per cent in multi-residential properties by 2025.

"There's going to be a lot of options on the table and it won't all be pretty," Moffatt told committee members.

"I expect there's going to be a lot of feedback and I think if councillors are getting push back on masks on play structures ... I think they better expect to get a lot of push back on what we're asking about on waste collection."

But Moffatt emphasized that the hope is to avoid building another landfill, with Ottawa's nearing capacity.

"This is going to be something that we have to figure out what to do for the long term. This is going to be more important than the election. After that, this is going to be about the 2030s and where we go with our waste."