City scales back garbage pick-up

More than 155,000 Ottawa households will need to adjust to a new garbage collection day on Oct. 29, when the city will scale back the frequency of garbage pick-up to every two weeks.

Blue and black bin recycling will continue with weekly collection, although the pick-up schedule dates may change. Green bins will continue to be picked up every week.

“The switch to bi-weekly residual waste collection will save the city $10 million per year over the existing system,” Coun. Maria McCrae said in a press release.

Anyone with a changing schedule will receive a letter from the city in October.

The city expects the changes will help extend the life of the Trail Road landfill.

“I think it will cause us to critically look at how much garbage we actually are producing,” Ottawa resident Meg Stewart said of the change. “Living with three other roommates . . . I think that two weeks is a little too long to go without picking up garbage.”