Solid Waste Master Plan

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What is a Solid Waste Master Plan? Why is it needed in Ottawa? What are the key considerations for the Waste Plan? Read on to find out.

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The Solid Waste Master Plan (Waste Plan) will establish a planning framework and strategic direction for the management of waste from:

• Curbside residential
• Multi-residential
• Parks and public spaces
• City facilities
• Partner programs and other non-City waste

The Waste Plan will examine the limited life span of the Trail Waste Facility, how the City collects and processes waste and how it will continue to increase diversion rates. It will also look at broader policy issues like single-use plastics, alternative technologies, greenhouse gas emissions and circular economy programs like green procurement. Funding mechanisms and legislative tools and instruments will also be examined.

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Engagement Series 1

From May to September 2020, staff, Councillors, residents and stakeholders were engaged to get input on how waste is currently managed in Ottawa and what they would like to see in the future. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, staff modified the Waste Plan’s engagement process so that all in-person engagement tactics were replaced with virtual methods. To ensure these activities connected with as many residents and stakeholders as possible, staff carried out a range of tactics, including:

• Virtual dialogue sessions with interested residents and stakeholders that included breakout sessions to allow small group discussions

• Virtual focus groups to connect with specific stakeholders, particularly those within the City’s equity and inclusion lens

• Virtual workshops with key stakeholders, such as the Stakeholder Sounding Board (more on this below)

• Online surveys with both the public and internal staff

• An Engage Ottawa platform that allowed for questions, ideas and participation in a forum

• One-on-one telephone interviews with representatives of equity-seeking groups

• A virtual dialogue session with residents and stakeholders with a focus on waste management at multi-residential properties

What questions did we ask?

Great discussions flowed from asking some high level, key questions, such as:

1. What are the strengths of the current waste system in Ottawa and how can we improve?

2. Imagine it’s 2052 and we’ve just completed our 30-year solid waste strategy. What does success look like to you?

3. What are the key considerations for this success?

What did we hear?

A comprehensive As We Heard Report will be released in early 2021 that will provide an in-depth look at the feedback we gathered from all engagement activities. Top line comments included:

1. Participants generally wanted the City to adopt very high waste diversion rates with many calling for a “zero waste” target.

2. Many participants believed that behavioral change will be required to meet higher diversion rates, and that the City needed to focus on education to encourage people to ‘take responsibility for their waste’.

3. Others called for more regulations and better enforcing of existing rules, such as issuing more fines, refusing to collect non-compliant waste, etc.

4. Many comments related to the need to make it easier for people to divert their waste.

5. Several participants believed that the City’s focus needed to be on waste reduction rather than diversion, and that the City should enact bans on single use plastics and encourage a circular economy and green procurement.

6. With respect to multi-residential buildings, several participants noted that processes needed to be in place to make it easier for residents to divert their waste, such as replacing garbage chutes with compost chutes.

7. Some participants noted that the City should investigate new technologies to use waste as a renewable energy. In this vein, there was mixed opinions about the environmental benefits of waste incineration.

How are we incorporating feedback?

Input is being used to:

• Draft a vision, guiding principles and goals for the Waste Plan that will help us establish where we want to be in 30 years time and the outcomes needed in order to make the vision a reality.

• Inform the development of a long list of draft options for the Waste Plan. These options will be recommended policies and programs that will seek to maximize how to avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle waste and manage material that is left over.

• Help develop an evaluation tool for assessing this long list of options using a triple bottom line approach (i.e., the environmental, social and financial considerations of each option).

What are the next steps?

Once options have been developed for the Waste Plan, they will be assessed using the triple bottom line evaluation tool. The resulting short list of options will be consulted on during the next engagement series, that will start in 2021.

There are a wide range of stakeholders interest in and potentially impacted by a future Waste Plan. As well as making every effort to reach and engage all residents and stakeholders, a Stakeholder Sounding Board (SSB) was established at the beginning of 2020. The SSB consists of individuals and organizations who represent a broad range of resident and stakeholder perspectives and interests, including differing demographics and housing types. The SSB also provides a forum for mutual learning and enhanced discourse on related topics and acts as a channel to further communicate engagement opportunities to the wider community.

Who are the members?

Waste Watch Ottawa

Recycling Council of Ontario

Envirocentre

University of Ottawa

Carleton University

Algonquin College

Ontario Waste Management Association

Ottawa Community Housing (OCH)

Greater Ottawa Home Builders Association (GOHBA)

Social Planning Council of Ottawa

Federation of Citizens’ Associations of Ottawa (FCA)

Eastern Ontario Landlord Organization

Canadian Association for Retired Persons (CARP, Ottawa Chapter 26)

Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC)

Osgoode Ward Business Association

Dunrobin Community Association

National Capital Commission (NCC)

Ottawa Coalition of BIAs

CAFES (Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability)

How has the SSB been engaged so far?

In May 2020 the SSB was engaged to gain input on a vision for the Waste Plan. A two-hour workshop took place where members broke into smaller breakout discussions in order to better facilitate the conversations. Input from this meeting was used, alongside feedback heard over the course of all engagement activities from May to September, to help develop a vision statement for the Waste Plan.

Three workshops were then held with the SSB in September 2020, the purpose of which was to:

1. Help ensure we had incorporated feedback from all residents and stakeholders into the vision statement.
2. Provide comments on guiding principles and goals for the Waste Plan which were, again, written based on feedback from all residents and stakeholders during engagement series 1.
3. Gain feedback to inform the development of the evaluation tool, which will be used to assess the options for the Waste Plan using a triple bottom line approach (i.e., the environmental, social and financial considerations of each option).

We want to hear your thoughts and ideas about waste management in the city and what you would like to see in the future! Complete the 10-15 minute survey and help us make the Waste Plan!

The survey closes on July 19th.

The City has completed the first phase of its Solid Waste Master Plan, a 30-year plan that will guide how it manages solid waste. This report provides an overview of waste management in Ottawa and explains what we have been doing in phase one. It also highlights emerging trends in waste management and explains the public engagement approach for the two remaining phases in the master planning process.

Supporting documents one to five referenced at the end of the report are the ‘Technical Memorandums’ that are posted in the next newsfeed below. The link to supporting document six entitled ‘Stakeholders’ is provided in this newsfeed after the Phase 1 report.

Phase 1 report

Document 6 - Stakeholders

During Phase 1 of the Solid Waste Master Plan, a series of technical memorandums were developed to understand and document:

• the existing waste management system and practices at the City of Ottawa;
• the current legislative context in which the Waste Plan will be developed;
• emerging policies and trends in the waste management industry that need to be considered;
• what programs, services and policies progressive Canadian municipalities have in place; and
• current and emerging approaches and technologies to collect, process and dispose of municipal waste.

Due to their technical nature, only the French Executive Summaries are available. The City of Ottawa may translate these reports or parts thereof upon request. Please forward your requests to: wasteplan@ottawa.ca

Current State Summary Document

The first step in the master planning process was to document the current state of the City’s solid waste management system. The Current State Summary documents the existing baseline waste management system, programs and supporting policies, as well as corporate waste management practices.

1. Executive summary
2. Technical memorandum
3. Appendices

Legislative Review

This technical memorandum includes a review of recent federal and provincial solid waste policies, programs and legislation, including an assessment of the potential impacts on the City’s future waste management system.

1. Executive summary
2. Technical memorandum

Emerging Policies and Trends

Emerging policies and trends in waste management are covered in this technical memorandum, including solid waste management policy and program trends at the municipal, provincial, federal and international levels. It also covers recent consumer, waste generation and packaging trends, as well as trends in the Industrial, Commercial and Institutional sector.

1. Executive summary
2. Technical memorandum

Municipal Scan

To identify innovative and progressive municipal waste management programs, services and policies in Canada that could be applied to the City’s future waste management system, a comparative scan of eight different municipalities was undertaken. The findings are documented in this technical memorandum.

1. Executive summary
2. Technical memorandum

Technology Review

This technical memorandum documents the results of a high-level review of different proven and emerging municipal waste management technologies and approaches that could potentially be applicable to the City’s future solid waste management system.

1. Executive summary
2. Technical memorandum

In order to have meaningful conversations about what the City should include in the Solid Waste Master Plan it is important to understand who has a role to play and the specific responsibilities of each level of government.

What role does the City of Ottawa play in solid waste management? What can be addressed through the Solid Waste Master Plan? What are the current federal and provincial initiatives and how can the actions of municipalities complement these plans and policies?

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