Solid Waste Master Plan

Construction waste need not reach landfill without treatment. It's too bulky and reduces uptake of domestic waste..

Federal Government Lobbying - Plastics

It's a great starting point for the federal government to bans some single use plastics, but straws and plastic forks are the least of the plastic problems that your waste program suffers from. The City of Ottawa should lobby the federal government to bring in legislation that would force manufacturers to only use certain types of plastics, those of which are easily recyclable/divertible etc., thus allowing future products to be thrown in the blue bin, versus what is done now. Also, the city should look to consider expanding the types of items in the blue box, there are many plastic items made from type 1, 2 or 3 plastics that get tossed because they aren't bottles. Can't there be a buyer out there for those items too?

LOOK at OTHER MODELS AROUND THE WORLD

Look at the places around the world that have the best recycling of waste and use this as a platform. For example Leeds, UK / San Francisco US, and Vancouver Canada are just some examples.

Apartments need to have better methods of dealing with waste not just a single waste chute.

Make Composting Mandatory in Multi-Res Buildings

My experience is that multi-res mangement companies can easily ignore the requests from residents to allow composting at their building. It should not be an option.

Recycling of Styrofoam & plastics

Whenever you purchase a variety of products and appliances the styrofoam used in the packaging has a recyclable number but we don’t recycle it presently. This would divert a lot of non organic garbage. Also the plastic bags or enclosures with no identifiable number.

Continue using garbage cans

We recycle Loblaws/Metro/etc. plastic bags for our garbage and then put them in the garbage can. That way we don't have to buy more plastic bags. Will there be a problem if these bags aren't see-through? We hope not. We use empty yoghurt containers for our green waste, then freeze it until it's time to put it out. We use the other bins appropriately. Please, no expensive plastic garbage bags!

BAN, Styrofoam and plastic cups

Why is it the city can't ban it, not sure why there are so many compostable options. If a group wants to have an event on city property then they should be required to use compostable material. City could provide the compostable bins. That cost is minimal compared to what to do with all that Styrofoam and plastic going to landfill and sitting there for a hundred years or more.

Deposits for blue box items and more efficient collection.

I like the Saskatchewan system. Almost every blue box item has a deposit, people work to return them. For paper, they have huge bins at almost every major shopping center and people drop it off, so there's no household pickup saving costs and fuel. Lastly, if there's a holiday, they don't make it up the following week, they shift a day. It doesn't reduce garbage, but it does reduce operation costs and fuel.

BUILD A WASTE-TO-ENERGY INCINERATION PLANT

None of the mentioned options that the city only considered for in particular non-compostable/recyclable items are desirable/the best. They only delay the inevitable of the landfill being completely full. Duraham Ontario and other municipalities in Ontario/the country and international countries like Sweden are successfully operating a waste-to-energy incineration plant, so why can't Ottawa? A waste-to-energy incineration plant would reduce the amount of land used and land/soil contamination, generate energy (for household and/or other uses), etc.

Implement all three models

Did not see this option in the survey. Using clear garbage bags, setting & enforcing garbage bag limits, and having the option to buy bag tags give residents flexibility while fostering waste reduction. All three synergize well and could be implemented at once as a revamping of the waste diversion program. Alternatively, they could be phased in over time to let residents acclimatize gradually. Will there be residents that do the wrong thing? Yes. There always will be. But over time as people get used to this I see it as a mandatory step for the Trail road facility by and large.

50 Gallon recycling bins for multi-residential buildings

The diversion rate for multi-residential buildings was at 17% in 2019 which is incredibly concerning. A simple suggestion would be to increase the size of recycling containers for multi-residential buildings. This point ties in with my previous suggestion of providing education for university students on recycling practices. I believe an additional reason that university students who live in multi-residential households are not motivated to recycle is due to the lack of room in the black and blue boxes. A lot of multi-residential buildings in Sandy Hill have four units, which can have up to six people per unit, which means that there are 24 people living in one building. Now imagine trying to fit six people’s two weeks' worth of recycling in one black (or blue) bin. What happens when it’s full? They’re just going to start throwing it into the trash. Secondly, Ottawa is known for its snow, and these bins are not enclosed, so if kept outside, the recycling gets filled with snow! The snow makes the recycling bins heavier which makes it difficult to lift them to the curb & more heavy lifting for the waste management team. Additionally, the recycling gets more filled with snow than recycling which isn’t optimal and results in more recycling getting thrown out. I believe that if these multi-residential buildings were to be given approximately three 50 gallon bins for paper and another three 50 gallons for plastics and metal, I believe there would be a great increase in recycling. There are lids on these so snow would not be getting in and there are wheels to easily push this recycling to the curb. It is also not efficient to pull eight different small black or blue bins to the curb every week. It creates more work for the citizens which can lead to people rather doing the easier option (throwing it in the trash). Lastly, if necessary homeowners should have the option to get access to these 50 Gallon recycling bins if necessary, encourage more recycling!

Why are citizens being targeted? Why aren't corporations and business owners doing their part to reduce waste?

This plan seems to be target focused on penalizing the citizens of Ottawa to bear the brunt of the costs of this program and what appears to be a transparent tax grab. Why is it that, every time you have a problem, we the taxpayers are on the hook for it? Perhaps it is time to have an HR review of the Garbage Disposal department and see where costs can be trimmed internally? Contracts tweaked and downsized? Anyways, I digress. Rather than targeting citizens, what about targeting the businesses throughout Ottawa that create organic waste that goes directly into the landfill? What about the grocery stores, corner stores and others who sell produce and other organic products that dump the items that are beyond their best-before date into the garbage? Why aren't they recycling as aggressively as your citizens are? Why aren't retirement homes, restaurants, hospitals, pubs, etc. recycling their organic waste? Why aren't office buildings, condos and apartment complexes setting up organic recycling throughout their establishments? My bet is their response is it is too expensive. I put it to you that what you are proposing that your citizens pay for is too expensive. How about we start making the companies that benefit from the infrastructure provided by the city of Ottawa start to participate in the goals and processes required to achieve waste reduction. It is no longer good enough to complain about the costs. If you benefit from Ottawa infrastructure, then you need to participate in making it work.

Organics Options

Green bins aren't for everyone. Adoption rates are low and most multi-res buildings don't have them. Consider promoting composters / green cone digesters (for more rural areas / homes with yards), or counter-top food waste recyclers with drop-off points (for multi-res). There are many people who want to divert but don't like the current system or can't access it due to factors beyond their control. We need to provide options so that 1) anybody in the city can participate and 2) people can choose a diversion system that works for them.

These plans fail to take into consideration multi family households.I rent rooms to others so I can afford my home.More people,more garbage.

Require apartment buildings and condos to compost

Bag tags for extra garbage bags

Garbage in Ottawa gets picked up every other week, with a limit of 6 items that could be placed outside. When I lived in Kingston, garbage was picked up every week, but limited to one garbage bag per household - any additional bags had to have special tags on them that had to be purchased. So, maybe something similar could be implemented in Ottawa - the principle would be to reduce the limit of garbage bags/items that can be placed outside, and have people purchase bags tags if they want to be able to put more garbage out. It could potentially also apply to blue bin or black bin items - if the amount of recycling items exceeds what the bins can hold, then there needs to be a fee associated with putting more items out. The general goal of this scheme would be to incentivize reducing waste output from households.

Recyclable materials - Change your purchasing habits

When you make a purchase of an item that seems to be made of non-recyclable material, maybe look to find one that is ? It may cost a little more but may also "unfill" the landfill :)

Better design for the 'Waste Explorer' app

There are over 900 entries in the app, some of which are oddly specific or similar to existing entries (eg, what's the difference between aluminum containers and aluminium cans?). Adding photos or pictures for each description would make it easier to figure out what category something is in.

Make clear garbage bags mandatory for both residential and business collection.

If the garbage contains too much organic or recyclable material, pick up of the bag would be refused. This could be implemented with a window to allow people to use up their black bags so they don't lose the money they invested before the by-law was created