By Yepoka Yeebo and Naëlle Le Moal
When Diane Holmes voted for the green box plan and the reduction of garbage pickup to twice a month, she seemed to be reflecting the views of Ottawa residents.
“We’re only thinking in three year terms. We’re not thinking in 25 year terms,” said Holmes at a council meeting last week.
“What will happen when the landfill fills up?”
After hours of debate, by a vote of 13 to eight, city councillors came to two decisions: to phase in the green box plan to separate organic waste, but reject bi-weekly garbage pickup at a cost of $11 million more than budgeted.
Instead, everything will be picked up once a week, whereas Holmes voted for bi-weekly pickup.
The original plan involved separating organic kitchen waste as well as yard waste and leaves at source, and collecting it once a week during the hottest eight months of the year, and bi-weekly in the colder months, when rubbish is less likely to rot. City staff said twice monthly garbage collection would add five years’ life to the Trail Road landfill, which will cost an estimated $120 million to replace, and save $7.57 million by reducing garbage collection.
The city is rapidly running out of landfill space and wants to divert 60 per cent of rubbish from landfills by 2008 — following the example of Toronto, which diverts 61 per cent.
Right now, through the recycling of cardboard, paper, cans, glass and certain plastics, the city only diverts 31 per cent.
A pilot scheme in Faircrest Heights with weekly pickup resulted in only 48 per cent diversion. Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans said the pilot scheme in her ward, with bi-weekly pickup had left people dumping garbage in private commercial bins and at curbsides.
Centretown News surveyed to Ottawa residents, who shared many of the concerns raised at the meeting. One of their main criticisms was that the green box program would be unworkable in apartment buildings.
“Oh God,” says Chris, who didn’t want her last name used and who lives on York Street. “I recycle all the time – paper, cardboard, cans. But I throw my coffee filter in with the regular garbage, and they want to change that? I live in a small apartment; I don’t have a lot of space — regular recycling is trouble enough.”
The initial scheme would not apply to apartment buildings, due to concerns about storage, but it will be reassessed a few years into the scheme. Many disagreed outright with the bi-weekly pickup, arguing that there were too many health risks:
“It’s terrible, people will have so much garbage, and it’ll be disgusting. Garbage should be picked up regularly, it’s smelly stuff. I remember when it was picked up twice a week,” says a resident who lives along the canal.
However, the city’s medical officer for health, Dr. David Salisbury, was satisfied that there were no hygiene concerns or threats from vermin. The Faircrest Heights pilot scheme included trash cans designed to keep animals out.
“We are a five-person family, including three children. Two weeks seems to be a bit too long for us,” says Caroline Messier, who lives in Rockcliffe.
“I agree with the principle, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that we will have less garbage. We already separate (our recycling) once a week, we don’t accumulate more than one garbage bag and one box.”
But many agreed with the idea of conserving landfill space.
“It’s a great idea to separate, as long as the waste is actually going somewhere … Sure it’ll be a bit of hassle but with enough storage space, it might save the city money,” says Vince Neil who lives with his partner in Sandy Hill.
Mark Bell, who lives behind the Byward market, was concerned that getting into the composting habit would take some getting used to. While some people might be responsible, a lot of people will just get a massive build-up and give up. Maybe in the long term. To start off with, maybe people will be really excited and do it right, then go back to old habits and it might take people a while to get into the habit and do it correctly,” Bell says.