Ottawa City HallVoteTracker

2022–2026 term

City CouncilMeeting 16

Curbside Waste Diversion Policy

Council was asked to

  1. Recommendation 1A in the Curbside Waste Diversion Policy report (“the report,”ACS2023-PWD-SWS-0003) be amended to read: “A Partial Pay-As-You-Throw program with a bi-weekly limit of two garbage items set-out every two weeks, with the option of additional tags to be purchased by residents to set out garbage items above the bi-weekly item limit;”
  2. households be provided with 15 tags, at no cost and with no expiry date, as a one-time allocation to assist with the transition to the new Partial PAYT program
  3. the staff recommendations in the report, as amended, be adopted by the City of Ottawa.
Lost

10 for, 14 against

Affects
City-wide
Agenda item
18.2
Motion number
2023-16-05
City file number
ACS2023-PWD-SWS-0003

How each member voted

The recitals

  • reducing the amount of waste going to landfill is an absolute good and supported by the vast majority of Ottawa residents
  • the proposed Curbside Waste Diversion Policy is just one of the elements of the proposed Solid Waste Master Plan in addition to other options such as Multi-Residential Waste Diversion, Food Waste Reduction Strategy, Expansion of the Take It Back! Program, Textile Waste Diversion, Separate Bulky Waste Collection and Recycling, Automated Cart System, Waste to Energy, Anaerobic Digestion, etc
  • 58% of what goes to landfill from curbside households can be recycled or composted through the City’s existing Blue, Black and Green Bin Programs
  • the City’s current average curbside garbage set-out is 2.1 items every two weeks and 74 per cent of Ottawa residents already place two or fewer items out for curbside pick-up each bi-weekly garbage cycle
  • it is an industry best practice to set garbage limits at or below the average set-out rate to help increase the waste diversion rate
  • Ottawa’s diversion rate continues to lag behind that of leading comparator municipalities
  • the current solid waste fee for Ottawa households, at $130 annually (regardless of number of occupants), is well below the national average for larger towns and cities
  • user-pay systems are proven to be one of the most common and effective approaches to increasing waste diversion rates
  • the most common user-pay approach implemented in Ontario is a partial PAYT system where tags are only required for bags above the set limit, including in nearby municipalities such as Brockville, Mississippi Mills, Carleton Place, Kingston, South Stormont, etc.
  • a transitional allotment of tags, with no expiry date, would provide residents with flexibility at the outset of the program’s implementation in July 2024, allowing them to better manage the transition

Check it yourself

This entry was transcribed from the City Clerk's official minutes. If anything here looks wrong, the minutes are the authority.

Read the official minutes