Waste Management in Ottawa

[rocketphish]

Dog poop (and plastic bags) coming to Ottawa green bins by Canada Day

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: April 17, 2019

The company that runs the organics-processing plant on Hawthorne Road says it’s on track to have its new equipment ready to accept plastic bags by Canada Day.

Michael Leopold, general manager of Renewi Canada (formerly Orgaworld), said the company has told the city it will be ready to roll for the new program on July 1.

“We’re well on pace for that,” Leopold said Wednesday.

The city hasn’t announced the exact date when people can start tossing plastic bags and dog feces into their green bins. While the processing plant might be ready, it’s up to the city to say when people can begin tying up their kitchen slop and dog feces in plastic bags and toss them in their green bins.

The environment committee voted Tuesday to move ahead with a summer implementation of the tweaked green bin program, even though councillors heard from public delegates who are concerned about allowing plastics in the organic waste stream.

The upgraded Renewi plant will shred and screen out the plastics and send them to the city dump.

Leopold said the biggest upgrade at the plant is a new ammonia scrubber, the same one the company installed in is biofuel facility in Surrey, B.C. The ammonia-scrubbing process creates an ammonia sulphate biproduct, which Orgaworld can sell to farmers as a fertilizer. The company has been selling the biproduct created in its London, Ont., facility.

The facility’s shredder and screening line, where the plastics are removed, are also getting beefed up.

The city will allow people to throw plastic bags and dog feces in their green bins as a way to increase the amount of organics sent to the Renewi plant. The changes would cost the city an extra $626,000 annually

Only about half of Ottawa residents are participating in the green bin program and the city has struggled to meet the contracted amount of organics sent to the processing plant.

The city’s deal with Renewi to accept plastic bags and dog feces also ends the costly legal disputes between the two over leaf and yard waste.

While councillors on Tuesday continued to hear concerns about plastics being in the compost product that comes out of the Renewi plant, Leopold said the compost meets Non-Agricultural Source Material specifications. The Renewi compost is sent to an Ontario-certified lab, he said.

Meanwhile, Renewi is closely monitoring what the provincial government wants to do with regulating organic waste. If the province goes through with a ban on organics in landfills in 2022, every organization that generates and collects garbage will have to think about where to send its organics. Leopold said Renewi would be interested in working with other municipalities and companies in the Ottawa area.

There’s already speculation that the City of Ottawa will eventually part ways with Renewi, though there’s still more than 10 years left on their contract. The 20-year agreement started April 1, 2010, and it ends March 31, 2030.

Coun. Scott Moffatt, the chair of the environment committee, has said Renewi shouldn’t be part of the city’s future after their contract expires.

Leopold, who’s nearly two years into his position as general manager, has been on a mission to mend the relationship with the City of Ottawa.

“Obviously it’s disheartening to hear someone say that,” Leopold said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job over the last couple of years of trying to make things right. We’ve been working with them. We’ve been completely transparent with them. We want to stay here long term. We made a commitment to the Ottawa region, just like we made a commitment to the Surrey region and made a commitment to the London area. We obviously want to stay here and we want to work with the surrounding communities.

“To build up goodwill it takes a long time. I’m hoping that over the next 10 years we can show Ottawa that there’s some good value in working with us and get them to where they want to be.”

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-by-canada-day

[rocketphish]

Plastic bags, dog feces allowed in green bins as of July 2

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: June 14, 2019

Ottawa residents can start tossing plastic bags and dog feces in their green bins on July 2, the city says.

Council voted in March 2018 to allow plastics and dog feces in the green bin in a renegotiated deal with Renewi, the organics plant operator, to resolve outstanding contract disputes.

The city’s auditor general discovered municipal taxpayers were overpaying to send organics to the Renewi plant (formerly the Orgaworld plant).

The city hired Hill+Knowlton Strategies last year to gauge public opinion about the green bin.

The research suggests 77 per cent of people with curbside garbage pickup use their green bins.

Before the polling, the city’s best information was that about half of households were using their green bins.

Solid waste services director Marilyn Journeaux said the older information was based on a waste audit of 100 homes over four seasons in 2014-2015.

(The Hill+Knowlton phone survey of 2,032 people was conducted Dec. 5-21, 2018. The margin of error was 2.2 per cent).

Nineteen per cent of people polled agreed with the phrase, “I hate the green bin.”

The Hill+Knowlton research found more people would use the green bin if they could use plastic bags and toss in dog feces.

The federal Liberal government recently announced its intention to ban single-use plastics by as early as 2021, but Coun. Scott Moffatt, chair of the city’s environment committee, voiced skepticism about the proposal since it’s a political announcement in a federal election this year.

Still, Moffatt said he expects that a some point there will be a ban on single-use plastics, either by the federal government or provincial government.

“At this point, we have single-use plastics in our stream,” Moffatt said. “We believe we can use those to the benefit of the green bin program and to the benefit of the Trail Road landfill in getting organics out of the landfill and to where they belong.”

If plastic bags are phased out one day, it’s less likely that people will toss their organics in the trash if they have become accustomed to using the green bin, Moffatt said.

The city’s curbside garbage diversion rate is 50 per cent, but the city believes the rate can increase to 63 per cent over three years thanks to the changes to the green bin program.

Renewi has upgraded the facility to handle the plastics and dog feces. The plastic bags will be shredded out of the organics stream and sent to the dump.

The changes to the green bin program will cost the city an extra $626,000 annually.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...s-as-of-july-2

[rocketphish]

All options being considered to keep trash out of the municipal dump as council digs into garbage policy

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: June 25, 2019

Should the city decrease the maximum number of garbage bags allowed at the curb? Institute a pay-per-bag system? Fine people for not recycling or placing organic waste in their green bins?

The debate begins now. All possibilities are on the table to prevent heaps of trash from filling the municipal dump. The city is developing its second solid waste master plan, which will be a 30-year strategy to divert trash from the Trail Road landfill and manage recycling programs.

“We’re going to look at all options,” environment committee chair Scott Moffatt said Tuesday during a special meeting on the waste plan’s scope of work.

It means the city could, after council approves the plan later this term, change the rules for residential garbage pickup as early as 2023.

Moffatt is reluctant to move to a collection system that penalizes people for not recycling enough. Low-income families could be impacted and it’s not residents’ fault that producers aren’t using more environmentally sensitive packaging material, he said.

He also said, however, that two options are already at the bottom of the list: finding a new landfill site and doing nothing.

The Trail Road dump, which opened in 1980, is projected to reach capacity by 2042. The city would need to start planning for a new landfill in the early 2030s and budget hundreds of millions of dollars.

The city will take about two years and use $1.3 million to research a new solid waste master plan. Council will be asked to sign off on the scope of work on July 10.

The city’s aspirations on waste management could be thrown off by decisions made on Parliament Hill and at Queen’s Park. The federal Liberals are pursuing a single-use plastics ban, and the Ontario Tories recently appointed a special advisor on recycling and plastic waste.

On Wednesday, council will vote on a motion endorsed by the environment committee directing staff to devise a plan to eliminate all single-use plastics and foamed plastics from city facilities, programs and contracted services, such as vending machines.

Marilyn Journeaux, the city’s director of solid waste services, assured the committee that the city’s master plan will be “adaptable and flexible.”

Moffatt said council shouldn’t be delaying the municipal work any further while the feds and province make decisions on waste management.

Last term of council, the city avoided altering municipal trash policies because the province was working on significant waste management changes.

“We could be a leader rather than waiting for other governments,” Moffatt said.

The city expects a final draft plan to be finished by the end of 2021. Under the proposed study schedule, any changes to garbage collection rules would begin in 2023.

The study is also likely to see if there’s viable technology to process residual garbage, rather than taking it to the dump.

The city at one time hoped to partner with Plasco Energy Group to build a commercial waste-to-energy facility that superheats trash down to a rock-like substance, but Plasco couldn’t come up with the money.

Meanwhile, the motion to devise a plan to eliminate single-use plastics from city facilities, programs and contracted services isn’t sitting well with beverage producers.

Jim Goetz, president of the Canadian Beverage Association, defended polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles for being highly recyclable and marketable.

“The beverage industry is the poster child for the circular economy,” Goetz said in an interview.

Some of the largest beverage producers are members of the association, including Coca-Cola, which has a vending contract with the City of Ottawa.

Goetz said the association hasn’t taken a position on whether its members have another type of beverage container they could use if the city bans single-use plastic bottles from vending machines and other concessions.

The city should focus on types of single-use plastics that are harder to recycle, not the PET bottles, he said.

The advocacy group Environmental Defence is calling on the beverage industry to implement a deposit on plastic bottles to make sure bottles are returned and properly recycled.

The city’s environment committee also received a launch plan for the changes coming to the green bin program next Tuesday.

Starting on that day, residents can put plastic bags and dog feces in their green bins. That means they can use plastic bags — things like plastic grocery bags, bread bags, cereal bags and garbage bags — to store and wrap their kitchen slop before tossing the bags into the green bin.

By the city’s rationale, if people already have the plastic bags around their house, they might as well put them to use in the green bin and help divert organics from the landfill.

The organics plant run by Renewi (formerly Orgaworld) will tear out the plastics and send the material to the municipal dump.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...garbage-policy

[zzptichka]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

Plastic bags, dog feces allowed in green bins as of July 2

Ugh. Who writes headlines like that? People will think it's OK to toss their bags into green bin thinking they do good recycling them... Whereas it's barely tolerable and should be avoided when possible.

[rocketphish]

City dumping Waste Management in west suburbs over 'performance issues'

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: September 6, 2019

The City of Ottawa won’t extend the collection contract of a major garbage company that continues to struggle to meet pickup schedules for communities in the west suburbs.

Waste Management has been in the city’s bad books because the company hasn’t always collected residential garbage on time. The company has the city collection contract in Kanata, Stittsville and the surrounding communities in west Ottawa.

City council learned from staff on Friday that Waste Management would no longer be collecting residential trash in the west zone starting next June. The city is extending all of its garbage collection contracts to May 31, 2023, but couldn’t reach a deal with Waste Management, so that contract will end May 31, 2020.

A memo from solid waste services director Marilyn Journeaux says council will be asked Wednesday to approve a contract with Miller Waste Systems for the west zone garbage collection.

After failing to negotiate an extension with Waste Management, staff approached the city’s in-house garbage collection team and Miller Waste Systems about submitting west-zone proposals.

Miller Waste Systems already has contracts for the two south-end zones, while the in-house team has contracts for downtown and east zones. The city successfully negotiated extended contracts with both groups.

The proposal from Miller Waste Systems for the west zone was the lowest, but still a bit more than what council approved for contract extensions last April. If council approves the deal Wednesday, there will be roughly another 80 cents in annual garbage collections fees beyond what was forecast in April, when staff indicated fees would be about $10 more for garbage collection in each of 2020 and 2021 and about $2.50 more in 2022.

However, it won’t be until June 1, 2020, that Miller Waste Systems begins collecting trash in the west zone, leaving Waste Management to finish its contract at a time when the company is having what the city calls “performance issues.”

Journeaux’s memo doesn’t draw a link between Waste Management’s performance issues and contract negotiations.

However, in an interview in July, the city’s general manager in charge of garbage collection, Kevin Wylie, said the city was issuing liquidated damages to Waste Management and holding off on contract negotiations.

Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower said it varied which part of the trash — garbage, blue box, black box or green bin — didn’t get picked up on the scheduled day, though it was usually picked up the next day. The collection delays in Stittsville go as far back as Easter, he said.

“Residents are frustrated. They have every right to be. This is one of those core basic services,” Gower said Friday.

Gower said there had been improvements during the summer, but the delays returned. With leaf and yard waste soon going to curbs with more frequency, regular collection is even more important, especially on windy days, he added.

“I’ve got to see assurances from staff that there are other options available,” Gower said.

The city says it will try to use its own resources to supplement Waste Management’s work to ensure garbage is collected on time. The city might rent trucks and use a casual labour pool. Miller Waste Systems might help, too.

The collection problems have also reached the desk of Mayor Jim Watson, who recently called Waste Management and asked officials to deploy the necessary resources to meet garbage pickup schedules.

Waste Management communications staff couldn’t be reached for comment late Friday afternoon. In July, the company blamed collection delays on a fire that damaged eight garbage trucks at a yard in June.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ormance-issues

[rocketphish]

Environment committee likes big biogas-to-energy upgrade at sewage plant

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: October 15, 2019

A $57.2-million project to upgrade the biogas-to-energy system at the City of Ottawa’s sewage plant received the environment committee’s full endorsement Tuesday.

The city wants to replace aging “cogeneration” engines that convert methane into electricity. There are three engines at the Robert O. Pickard Environmental Centre that produce electricity for part of the plant, but city wants to replace them with more powerful engines and add a fourth one.

Councillors were most concerned about the $41.8 million the city would have to take from the waste water reserve account for the project, leaving $29.4 million in the reserve for other critical work.

Public works and environmental services general manager Kevin Wylie assured councillors there will be enough money in the reserves to cover commitments in the department’s asset plans.

Coun. Riley Brockington said the city should exhaust every opportunity to apply for grants to cover the cost, although staff have already searched for grants and couldn’t find any that match the project parameters.

The city figures the project will pay for itself after 14 years, considering the money it will save on electricity bills.

Envari Energy Solutions would be contracted to manage the project. Envari is a company of Hydro Ottawa, whose sole shareholder is the City of Ottawa.

Wylie pointed out that council, through an approved motion last April, declared a climate emergency. The upgrade would prevent 1,565 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from being released into the environment each year. Any biogas that isn’t used in the production of electricity at the facility is burned off.

The upgrade would allow the sewage plant to continue treating waste water even if power to the facility shuts off. The facility cleans the waste water received through the municipal sewer system and pours it into the Ottawa River.

Council will vote on the project Oct. 23.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...t-sewage-plant

[rocketphish]

Fired up: Bryden says waste-to-energy firm Plasco set to tackle global market under new name

By: David Sali, OBJ
Published: Dec 18, 2020 3:50pm EST

An Ottawa company that was once hailed as a green energy trailblazer says it’s ready to bring its trash-to-energy technology to market five years after filing for creditor protection.

Formerly known as Plasco Conversion Technologies, serial entrepreneur Rod Bryden’s firm has rebranded itself in preparation for what it hopes will be a breakthrough 2021.

Bryden says the company, now called Omni Conversion Technologies, has spent the past several years refining its system that is supposed to burn garbage and convert it into electricity and another gas that can be used as an energy-efficient fuel.

“We’ve kept quiet and focused entirely on putting this product into what we hope and believe is perfect shape,” Bryden, who launched the company 15 years ago, told OBJ this week.

“We don’t want the focus to be on (Omni’s) history ​– we want it to be on the product and where it’s going in the future.”

Starting roughly a decade ago, the company poured $400 million in private funding into a demonstration plant on Trail Road to prove its technology that uses high-temperature plasma gas to turn garbage into electricity would work. In 2011, it got the green light from the province to build a commercial plant and had a deal with the city that would have paid it up to $9.1 million a year to take as much as 300 tonnes of garbage a day.

But after missing several deadlines to secure additional financing, the firm ultimately filed for protection from its creditors in early 2015. Later that year, Bryden bought the company for $1 in a transaction that included its intellectual property, but not the Trail Road facility.

Bryden cites a number of factors for Plasco’s failure to gain traction in its original incarnation.

The price of natural gas plummeted around that time, he notes, meaning potential customers who were intrigued by the technology’s promise of cheaper, greener energy suddenly had less economic incentive to consider alternatives. Canada’s withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions in 2011 also dampened enthusiasm for green energy, he says.

“There was no market, and we had investors who had become exhausted both with how long it took and how much it cost,” Bryden said.

In response, Bryden revamped the company’s business model.

The firm abandoned its original goal of owning and operating the waste-to-energy facilities itself as well as selling electricity on the public grid. It has refocused solely on developing its technology and plans to contract out the assembly of the plants, which will be built for customers such as utility companies.

Now, after a series of false starts, Bryden believes Omni’s time has arrived.

He says the company is currently conducting engineering studies aimed at laying the groundwork for a facility in Australia, and he’s hoping to sign a final deal early next year. He says he also expects talks with several other customers around the world to bear fruit in 2021.

“You’re going to hear a lot more of us in the next year,” Bryden said.

If customers do indeed start signing on the dotted line, Omni could have a bright future ahead. Each one of the company’s patented gasification systems carries a price tag of about $40 million, and Bryden says a large-scale utility supplier would need about three units at a typical plant.

Bryden insists he’s not worried about negative headlines from the past scaring off potential customers.

He says a California-based insurance company has agreed to cover clients’ losses should the technology fail to deliver the goods, while a major U.S. fund manager has pledged to partner with customers who agree to use Omni’s technology to help shoulder the financial burden.

“Those two factors go a very long way ​– in fact, pretty much all the way ​– to taking the risk away from the customer,” Bryden said.

The slimmed-down firm now employs about 25 people, the majority in Ottawa as well as three as its Barcelona-based sales and marketing office. While it’s a far cry from the heights of 2014, when the company had a staff of 160, Bryden says he’s confident his rebranded enterprise is poised to rise from the proverbial ashes.

“There is a very large opportunity,” he said, before adding: “It’s just an opportunity – it’s not done yet.”

https://www.obj.ca/article/techopia/...under-new-name

[rocketphish]

City will expand pilot project for recycling in parks this year
Three-stream waste receptacles will be installed at various locations throughout each participating park with an emphasis on entry and exit points and gathering spots.

Joanne Laucius, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Feb 04, 2021 • 10 hours ago • 2 minute read

City councillors are being asked which parks in their wards they would like to see included in an expanded pilot project aimed at reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill.

Ottawa has about 4,300 hectares of parkland scattered over 1,300 sites.

About 450 tonnes of garbage was collected from city parks in 2018, about 0.2 per cent of the total garbage collected by the city, said a memo to councillors from Kevin Wylie, the city’s general manager in charge of garbage collection.

Reducing the waste sent to landfill from parks has been a matter of trial and error.

In the first phase of pilot projects in 2017, large recycling carts were installed in the parking lots of seven parks across the city. However, the bins were often under-used and contaminated after entire bins of contents had to be disposed of as garbage.

In 2018, the recycling carts were often paired with garbage bins and labelling was made more clear.

During the spring of 2019, containers were placed close to the garbage bins and different container lids were introduced to see if lid size and colour affected the amount of recycling that was “captured” and contamination rates.

The best lids had restrictive openings, but they were also easier to clog, which gave the impression that bins were overflowing. The large recycling carts did not need to be emptied as often, which was more efficient, and there was less contamination.

In the most recent pilot, recycling streams were expanded to include organics and dog waste. Large wheeled collection carts were installed in 10 parks for garbage, blue box recycling and organics.

In 10 parks between the fall of 2019 and summer 2020, 72 per cent of waste that would have otherwise been sent to landfill was diverted to recycling and organics bins, and 75 per cent of what could be recycled was placed in recycling bins, while 79 per cent of organic material was placed correctly in green bins, Wylie wrote.

This spring, the city wants to expand the pilot, which would run until the spring of 2022, to about 20 parks of different sizes and locations. The project already includes Mooney’s Bay Park, a destination park.

In the expanded pilot, three-stream waste receptacles will be installed at various locations throughout each participating park with an emphasis on entry and exit points and gathering spots.

Staff will report back, and their findings from all the pilot projects will help develop a future city-wide recycling program in parks.

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...arks-this-year

[rocketphish]

Green bin use in Ottawa growing, but not by much
City reports only 8 per cent more households using green bins since 2018, despite numerous efforts

Nicole Williams · CBC News
Posted: May 18, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

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.

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.

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."

With file from Joanne Chianello

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...wing-1.6030206

[J.OT13]

Enough "encouragement" and start doing some "enforcement". Our neighbours (a couple) throw out 4-5 massive black garbage bags every two weeks and don't use the green bin. We, on the other hand, throw out a small white kitchen bag once a month, tops.

We go out of our way to live as close to a 0 waste life as we can, by shopping at zero waste grocery stores, ordering massive cardboard toilet paper boxes from Costco and bringing any lightbulb, bits of metal and electronic to proper recycling centres (stock-up over a few months and make the trip). I don't expect people to go as far as we do, but the city needs to set a limit, and that should be based with household needs (large families or parents with a special needs child might need more garbage bags).

One thing that pisses me off the most is that the City garbage takes anything. A all metal BBQ? Throw it in the back. Lawn chairs? Chuck-it! Construction material? No prob!

Most of this stuff is 100% recyclable. The City should have a monthly pick-up, or a phone line to request a pick-up, a recycling centre where we can bring this kind of stuff ourselves (lots of people have big trucks or SUVs nowadays). The City could make money off of recycling scrap metal.

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Enough "encouragement" and start doing some "enforcement". Our neighbours (a couple) throw out 4-5 massive black garbage bags every two weeks and don't use the green bin. We, on the other hand, throw out a small white kitchen bag once a month, tops.

We go out of our way to live as close to a 0 waste life as we can, by shopping at zero waste grocery stores, ordering massive cardboard toilet paper boxes from Costco and bringing any lightbulb, bits of metal and electronic to proper recycling centres (stock-up over a few months and make the trip). I don't expect people to go as far as we do, but the city needs to set a limit, and that should be based with household needs (large families or parents with a special needs child might need more garbage bags).

One thing that pisses me off the most is that the City garbage takes anything. A all metal BBQ? Throw it in the back. Lawn chairs? Chuck-it! Construction material? No prob!

Most of this stuff is 100% recyclable. The City should have a monthly pick-up, or a phone line to request a pick-up, a recycling centre where we can bring this kind of stuff ourselves (lots of people have big trucks or SUVs nowadays). The City could make money off of recycling scrap metal.

Yeah price incentives is the easiest way. Some places charge you for every bag. The problem with that is it would just lead to dumping here.

The Ottawa dump over-flowing is a different issue than more worldwide environmental issues. On that front recycling is over-rated. We were shipping it to China and now a lot of it is no really being recycled anymore. Reducing is still the most important R and recycling lets a lot of people feel guiltless about their over consumption.

[J.OT13]

I agree that recycling, at least plastic recycling, gives people a false sense of accomplishment. A large proportion of single use plastics could be eliminated over a year or two, but that's up to upper levels to impose legislation. Lots of promises, little action so far.

Only 30 years ago, Coke and Pepsi came in glass bottles that would be re-used, just like beer. Other drinks, I'm thinking Boost and Ensure for example, came in metal cans, now it's tetra packs or plastic, in the case of Ensure, with six pack rings that are detrimental to sea life.

It would be so easy to just move back 30 years. There are alternatives to single-use plastics for nearly everything.

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

They just came to pick up my garbage.

It was an all female crew.

In all my decades on this planet. it is the first time I have seen that.

Is the world coming to an end?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by LeadingEdgeBoomer

Is the world coming to an end?

The garbage is what will bring the world to an end, not the all female crew.

[LeadingEdgeBoomer]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

The garbage is what will bring the world to an end, not the all female crew.

Good Point.

[rocketphish]

Ontario's updated blue box program to be phased in starting in 2023

Shawn Jeffords, The Canadian Press
Publishing date: Jun 03, 2021 • 57 minutes ago • 2 minute read



TORONTO — Ontario has finalized its plans to expand the list of items accepted in blue boxes as it moves to standardize recycling programs across the province.

Environment Minister Jeff Yurek announced the government has concluded consultations and will move forward with a plan that has been in development for years.

It will standardize the blue box program across more than 250 municipalities and shift the cost to operate it from communities to waste producers – a move it estimates will save $156 million a year.

Yurek says the program will mean additional items will be accepted in blue boxes including plastic cups, foils, trays and bags.

Single use items such as stir sticks, straws, cutlery and plates will also be permitted in blue bins under the proposal.

The program will be phased in starting in 2023 in Toronto, London, Kenora, and the Town of Hawkesbury.

The province will also expand blue box services to more smaller and rural communities with populations under 5,000.

It is also pledging to expand the service to locations where it is not provided, including apartment buildings, long-term care homes, schools and municipal parks by 2026.

Opposition critics have slammed the government for taking too long to implement the changes, but Yurek defended the timeline as realistic.

“When we looked at creating the blue box program we actually want to make the changes that are going to be effective and actually workable in the real day world,” he said. “Not just what’s thought about on a piece of paper.”

Yurek said Ontario’s overall waste diversion rate has stalled and about 70 per cent of recyclable materials continue to end up in landfills.

“This will allow more Ontarians to recycle,” he said.

Green party Leader Mike Schreiner praised the initiative for streamlining the province’s recycling program, but said if Ontario wants to tackle the issue of plastic waste it needs to ban single-use plastic bottles and coffee cups.

Those items were left off a recent federal list of banned single-use plastics, he said.

“My fear is that Premier (Doug Ford) does not understand that our plastic waste problem is reaching a crisis point,” Schreiner said in a statement. “I am worried that plastics will continue to pile up in landfills, parks, and lakes.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2021.

https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/news-p...3-d9c87cad23fb

[J.OT13]

Sooo, by 2023 we get to wish-cycle , or "recycle", if you prefer, single use plastics that are supposed to be banned by the Feds this year. Ok then.

Speaking of which, what's going on with the Feds' half-measure ban on single use plastics that was suppose to be implemented this year?

[rocketphish]

City releases list of proposals to increase residential recycling with municipal dump 70-per-cent full
A draft solid waste master plan will be up for council approval in spring 2022 before the city holds a final round of public consultation.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jun 17, 2021 • 22 hours ago • 3 minute read

More than 70 proposals are on the table to achieve a “zero waste Ottawa,” including options that would make people pay fees based on the amount garbage they throw out or use clear plastic bags to prove they’re not trashing recyclable material.

The municipal dump on Trail Road only has about 17 years of capacity left for Ottawa’s residential garbage, based on the latest calculations made by city staff as they create a new 30-year solid waste master plan.

Staff updated councillors Thursday on the work of the master plan, with the second of three phases nearly complete.

On June 29, the standing committee on environmental protection, water and waste management will consider the vision, goals and long list of options under a new master plan.

Now is the time when staff throw a pile of ideas at the public to see what resonates when it comes to protecting the landfill and increasing diversion, while avoiding huge increases to the city budget.

A technical consulting team and public consultations helped develop the proposed vision and options.

Other proposals include banning materials from the garbage, enforcing curbside bag limits, mandating green bins in multi-residential buildings and implementing better recycling options in city facilities.

The city could also pursue non-landfill waste technologies, like incineration or gasification, to prevent the landfill from reaching capacity or as a long-term disposal option. The city attempted to move down that road with Plasco Energy Group’s “plasmafication” technology before severing the partnership in 2015 when the company couldn’t secure financing for a full-scale plant.

It will be up to the public to weigh in before the city creates a short list of options.

Staff are recommending 11 goals for the next waste plan, with extending the life of the municipal landfill on Trail Road being one of the top priorities. A special “residual waste management strategy” in the works alongside the larger solid waste master plan.

The city believes the dump will be full between 2036 and 2038. There was 30 per cent of capacity left at the end of 2019.

During a briefing on the report, councillors heard it takes 12-15 years to secure a new landfill site, though Coun. Eli El-Chantiry believes it would take at least 20 years, highlighting a potential time crunch.

It’s a process that would undoubtedly be politically explosive.

Coun. Scott Moffatt, chair of the environment committee, said the decisions made in the second phase of the master plan study could extend the life of the dump.

“We know no one wants to have a conversation about a new landfill,” Moffatt said.

The city estimates it will have to manage 487,000 tonnes of trash by 2052, about 37 per cent more waste than 2020. The projections haven’t taken into account any legacy impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as an increase in work-from-home protocols. The city only has authority over the waste generated by the residential sector.

The city will put together “moderate” and “aggressive” proposals for waste management, with the aggressive option likely including more culture-changing measures to increase diversion.

Moffatt said council might need to choose a stronger approach to achieve the city’s waste goals. It could require a blend between moderate and aggressive options, he said.

A draft solid waste master plan will be up for council approval in spring 2022 before the city holds a final round of public consultation.

The next municipal election is in October 2022.

The final solid waste master plan will be up for council consideration in early 2023.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...-per-cent-full

[rocketphish]

City garbage collection contracts proposed to go more than 10 years without full competition
Next month, city council will be asked to authorize a two-year extension of the current contracts through to June 2025.

Jon Willing, Ottawa Citizen
Publishing date: Jun 18, 2021 • 20 hours ago • 3 minute read

Ottawa’s garbage collection could go more than 10 years without being subjected to an open-market competition.

There are so many policy changes happening that the City of Ottawa wants to once again extend the collection contracts until the regulatory dust settles.

Next month, city council will be asked to authorize a two-year extension of the current contracts, securing the status-quo curbside garbage pickup between June 2023 and June 2025.

It would also mean garbage fees increase slightly for property owners who receive curbside collection.

The last competitively issued contracts for all five zones started on Oct. 29, 2012.

The city has five garbage collection zones and each has a contract. In 2011, council made a strategic decision to keep the complex downtown zone in-house without having a contract competition. The city’s in-house collection team also has the east zone, won fair and square in a contract competition against the private sector.

The other three collection zones are contracted to Miller Waste Services, which expanded its influence on garbage pickup in 2020 when the previous west-end contract-holder, Waste Management, couldn’t negotiate a new deal with the city. The city gave the zone to Miller after considering proposals from the company and the in-house collection team.

A staff report, which will first be considered by the standing committee on environmental protection, water and waste management on June 29, recommends giving city management the authority to extend the collection contracts for two additional years under a provision in the procurement bylaw that waives requirements for contract competitions.

The garbage collection program has been in a holding pattern while the provincial government makes policy decisions on waste management.

In 2016, council extended the garbage contracts one year until May 31, 2020, since the city didn’t know how any provincial measures would impact municipal waste management.

The city started working on a new solid waste master plan through more uncertainty at the provincial level, with the Progressive Conservatives ousting the Liberals from power in 2018. In 2019, council authorized another three-year extension to the collection contracts to cover the period between June 1, 2020 and June 4, 2023.

According to the staff report, the current contracts are together worth about $44.6 million annually.

One of the key variables has been the province’s approach to making producers responsible for the blue and black box program and the city’s involvement, or non-involvement, in collecting the material. City staff are crunching the numbers.

The other issue is local as the municipal government writes the solid waste master plan, which will inform the garbage collection requirements. The plan isn’t scheduled to get council’s approval until early 2023.

Staff are telling council that it’s too risky to tender and sign conventional five-year collection contracts lasting until at least 2028 when there are so many unresolved policy issues.

The city needs to sort out collection contracts well in advance of contract start dates so the suppliers can order and receive the necessary trucks. The in-house team, for example, will need to replace 22 trucks and add two trucks to handle the increase in homes in east Ottawa.

For property owners, it would mean the average single-family homeowner would pay about 71 cents more per month in 2023 and another 42 cents more per month in 2024, for a total of $13.60 over the proposed two-year contract extension.

The city has had to pump more money into in-house collection since 2012 because of operational deficits.

The two in-house zones might have turned a corner in the past year, according to an early city analysis, with staff reporting that the zones appear to have had surplus for the first of the current three-year contract extension.

jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...ll-competition

[J.OT13]

A great presentation on waste diversion in Ottawa. Broken down into a few parts, starting with general info, including what is accepted or not in each bin.

Interesting fact is that 75% of household waste could be diverted into the blue, black and green bins, but only 43.2% actually is.

The video then goes into what happens to each type of waste at the facility, and what the recycled waste is used for (what the plastics, metal and paper are recycled into).

• Video Link

The presenter goes into hazardous materials a bit as well. Unfortunately, the City only has a few sporadic depots throughout the year, rarely accessible by transit. There are a few private retailers and companies who take hazardous waste as well for free.

The City has a handy website where you can search most household items and it tells where they go; blue, black or green bin, trash or hazardous waste (and if so, what retailer takes it).

https://ottawa.ca/en/garbage-and-rec...waste-explorer

To go beyond what the City offers/suggests, I would recommend collecting scrap metal in a box and taking a yearly or bi-yearly trip to the scrap yard. They take ANY metal, including Christmas lights, extension cords, trinkets, cookware. They often take electronics as well (so does Best Buy and other electronic stores) and all sorts of other stuff. Scrapyards even pay you for your scarps. Could be just a few dollars for smaller/lighter things, but if you're bringing heavier stuff like a BBQ, steel wheels, patio furniture, it can go into the double digits (made $25 on old 16" alloys last year).

For green bins, don't just think of them as a receptacle for yard waste and food. Any soiled paper can go in there. Pizza boxes, tissue paper, Q-Tips (Q-Tip brand only, made of paper and cotton), lint (though you'd think not due to micro-plastics). At home, we have compost bins in each room, including washrooms, not garages. We only keep one garbage for floor for the few things that do not go in any black, blue or green bins, such as soft plastics and styrofoam.