A Stinky Situation

Ottawa residents are among the worst composters in the province, with only half using their green bins, which could spell disaster for the city’s Trail Road landfill.

“This ultimately impacts on the life expectancy of the city’s landfill,” Duncan Bury, a member of Waste Watch Ottawa, said.

Out of seven major Ontario municipalities, Ottawa ranks sixth, according to the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority— the body responsible for waste diversion programs under the 2016 Waste-Free Ontario Act.

This means that about 40 per cent of all organic waste is ending up in the landfill, according to a city-commissioned 2014-2015 audit by AET Group.

The Future of Trail Road Landfill

If this trend continues, the landfill will be full by 2045, according to WWO's 2015 report. A new site would cost the city over $200 million dollars.

Catherine McKenney, councillor for Somerset Ward and member of the city’s Environment and Climate Protection Committee, said she agrees that the situation needs to change.

“I believe that significantly more of the waste product generated throughout Ottawa should be reused, recycled, and composted and ultimately diverted from our landfill,” she said in an email.

McKenney said the real issue is a lack of funding, which the Waste-Free Ontario Strategy is expected to address. It would see packaging producers covering costs for municipal blue bin programs as early as 2019.

Small Changes

“The City of Ottawa could be in a situation where they’re continuing to run the program for several years before the shining white knight comes in and saves them all these costs,” Bury said. “We’re not talking about a major rejig of the whole program . . . What we’re talking about now is a number of modest efforts and improvements.”

Bury said that one of the improvements should be more spending on public education.

“There’s a certain amount of communication the city does to promote recycling and green bin participation, but the amount of money the city spends on a per household basis is right at the bottom,” he said.

Bury added that Ottawa spends 50 cents per household each year on education programs, while Toronto and Peel region spend over two dollars.

The city hasn't promised any new education funding in its 2018 draft budget.

Bury said that even a small change could make a big difference.

“Waste Watch Ottawa determined that if in fact the city was able to increase the amount of waste diverted by one percentage point a year. . . they would get one extra year of capacity (at the landfill).”