By Karla Briones-Rubello
The success of a recycling pilot-project that started in late August has prompted requests that it be extended until April.
The pilot project for recycling in public places is supposed to end Dec. 31 because regional amalgamation limits the city’s ability to sign long-term contracts.
But the city’s Department of Urban Planning and Public Works wants to recommend that the project be extended until April so it has time to collect data on wintertime use of the bins.
Ray Villeneuve, coordinator of operational studies for the city, says the department will present the recommendation to the new city council in early January.
Villeneuve says the bins have significantly increased the amount of waste being recycled.
“Eventually 43 per cent of our garbage won’t end up going to the fields and would be recycled,” he says.
The city installed 100 bins throughout Ottawa in August, mostly on high-traffic streets.
The stainless-steel bins are larger than three Canada Post mailboxes and have three times the capacity of the regular city waste bins. They have separate compartments for garbage and recyclable material, including newspapers, bottles and cans. Each bin also carries two 76-cm by 152-cm ads.
The Toronto-based OMG Media is providing and maintaining — but not emptying — the bins. In return, advertising revenues are shared between OMG Media and the city.
Lou Gallucci, vice-president of OMG Media, says his staff approached the city with the idea of extending the pilot project.
He says despite negative reactions from people who oppose the advertising on the bins, so far the pilot project has “been a success.”
Villeneuve says shared ad revenues have generated an estimated $1,000 per month. Revenues generated from the sale of recyclables have also helped diffuse the city’s disposal costs.
If the project is extended, the bins would be repositioned so they don’t obstruct snow removal, says Villeneuve. Twenty-five bins would also be removed because they haven’t been used very much.
The City of Toronto launched a similar program with OMG Media in 1997 after a successful pilot project. Today, there are over 4,000 bins around the city.
“This program works,” he says. “It’s not ‘maybe’ or ‘could be’ — it works.”