Solid Waste Master Plan

Thank you very much for your valuable input and feedback. Under the current curbside collection contract, waste is typically collected five days a week between the hours of 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday to Friday. Regular hours of work for waste collectors under the contract, however, are set as Monday to Saturday, which allows for Saturday waste collection in the event of a statutory holiday, without additional costs to the City. 

Further, the City of Ottawa is currently working to develop the approach for the 2025 Curbside Collection Contract, which includes a Service Level Options Review. The curbside collection schedule will be considered as part of this review to help identify potential opportunities for service innovation and further cost savings while maintaining curbside collections services to residents across the City beginning in June 2025.

Thanks for the question. 

Decomposition in the landfill is anerobic (low-oxygen) and much slower than aerobic (standard oxygen present) decomposition.  Decomposition in a low-oxygen environment also increases the amount of methane produced.  Methane is a substantially more potent greenhouse gas than CO2.

Disposing of greater quantities of organic matter in the landfill reduces the landfill’s capacity, increases odour management requirements, increases the production of methane, and increases the amount of leachate (liquid landfill waste) to be managed.  Further, the composted organic waste can be beneficially reused, whereas anything placed in the landfill cannot.

Inorganic materials such as plastics take somewhere in the order of 400 -1000 years to decompose in the natural environment, the presence of organic material is unlikely to speed up this process in a meaningful way.

Thanks for the great question. We are currently exploring a bag based system as an opportunity to implement in the short term to help support increased recycling and organics diversion.  We know through our waste audits that many Ottawans use plastic bags today as a means to contain their waste, even if they use waste bins to take their waste to the curb, so we are not anticipating a bag based policy to significantly increase reliance on the use of bags to contain the waste.  

Cart based collection and transitioning to an automated cart collection system are still being considered in the Master Plan as opportunities to build on any of these policy options in the medium to longer term - stay tuned for more engagement this fall. Given Ottawa’s unique makeup, some older denser neighbourhoods where automated collection may be difficult, winter weather conditions, and accessibility factors, as just as a few examples, we will likely require piloting of a cart based system to ensure it could be properly implemented across the city. Also, any decision to move to a cart based collection system will need to align with future collection contracts and fleet turnover as specialized equipment is required on the waste trucks to accommodate it - hence why we will explore it in the medium to long term to build on any policy we consider for a bag based system today. 

Thank you for the feedback. This is a similar comment to another post we received earlier and we will be adding a clearer definition of "garbage" to the survey. Yes, your garbage count is one item. 

Thank you for your question. "Garbage" and "waste" can be interchangeable, for some, but, for the purposes of this engagement series recyclables and organics are not considered "garbage". When we mention "garbage" we are dealing with that portion of the waste that cannot be placed in the recycling or organics "waste" streams. Thank you for this comment and we will add a more clear definition in the survey.  

Thank you for your feedback. While plasmafication is not specifically mentioned as an option, the City is looking at new and emerging technologies to manage the residual waste stream, which this type of technology would fall under as it is not yet commercially proven on the municipal waste stream. These are described in option 7A4 – Emerging Technologies. All options, including emerging technologies, are currently being evaluated for their suitability to meet the city’s future needs. Those that are identified as being most suitable to meet these needs will be consulted on in the fall.

Thank you for your question. With the partial pay-as-you-throw option we’re exploring, your garbage is treated like your gas and hydro use – residents pay for garbage based on how much they create. Each household is allowed to set out a certain number of garbage items every two weeks, and any household setting out above this limit can purchase garbage tags for each additional item, as needed. So, there’s flexibility to dispose of extra waste, if and when you need it. 

Thank you for your feedback. We recognize your concerns around how commercial waste generation is contributing to filling up our landfills. The City of Ottawa is focused on engaging with stakeholders on residential/household waste management programs as this is the waste stream that municipalities are responsible for managing. Industrial, Commercial & Institutional (IC&I) waste falls under provincial, not municipal, jurisdiction. As a municipality, the City of Ottawa has very little authority to impose requirements for waste management on the IC&I sector.

Thank you for your question. The below explanation from the "Current State' technical memo, that was developed during Phase 1 of Waste Plan development (and can be found on Engage Ottawa) should help clarify. 

 In July 2005, Council approved the implementation of an alternative method to fund solid waste management services to achieve transparency of costs and fairness in the funding of the program and to increase the incentive to divert materials from landfill. The new funding model enacted two different and distinct methods of funding City solid waste management services:

• waste diversion/recycling costs continued to be funded by all City of Ottawa tax classes from the assessment based tax bill; and,
• costs for residual garbage collection and landfill disposal fees would be funded only by residential and multi-residential properties through the implementation of a uniform flat fee (the Solid Waste User fee). 

The principles behind this new funding methodology were: 

• In support of environmental stewardship and sustainable landfill, waste diversion costs are shared by all tax classes; 
• Residual garbage collection costs are imposed on benefiting users only, as identical charges for identical services; 
• Transparency of cost to the user; and 
• Potential incentive for increased diversion. 

Waste diversion program costs (Blue/Black/Green bin) are funded by taxes so that the program costs can be assessed back to all property owners, including the industrial, commercial and institutional sector since they generate/produce the recyclable materials. Consequently, the costs are spread across the entire community and are not just assigned to residential property owners.

Thank you for your question. If Council were to choose to adopt a clear garbage bag program with enforced recycling and organics bans, specifications for the responsibility of the collection contract would be included in the next curbside collection contract. The appropriate level of enforcement would be decided by Council and based on feedback from the public, other municipalities, and City staff to recommend a preferred and realistic option.