Plastic bags to be allowed in green bins starting next summer

Ottawa residents willbe able to put their yucky kitchen waste and dog poop in plastic bags before dumping itinto their green bins, starting in the summer of 2019.

City council voted Wednesday to change its controversial contract with Orgaworld,the company that processes the city's organicwaste collected in green bins. Couns.Tobi Nussbaum, Jeff Leiper and Catherine McKenney voted against the item.

• Plastic bags in green bin get committee's OK

Allowing plastic bags in the green bin will cost the city an additional $626,000 a year, or an estimated 15 cents per month for the average taxpayer.

The city's green bin program has not been as successful as the city had hoped since it was launched about eight years ago. Only about half of households use the green bin and a mere 40 per cent of organics are diverted from the city's Trail Road landfill, which is expected to be full by 2043.

Many people have complained about the so-called "ick factor" associated withusing the green bin, especially in hot summer months. That barrier should be gone now, saidCoun. DavidChernushenko, who chairs the environment and climate protection committee.

As well, staff are planning to install green bins in parks in the summer of 2019 for dog owners to use. It's hoped the measure will divert the 4,000 tonnes of pet waste that currently goes to the landfill.

"You're out of excuses," Chernushenkotold green bin naysayers. "We've done all we can to make it convenient. It's your turn now."

Controversial contract

As well, the renegotiated contract ends a years-long arbitrated dispute between the city and Orgaworld.

The original contract was highly controversial, in part because it called for the city to pay for a minimum of 80,000 tonnesof organic wasteto be processed at the Orgaworldplant. The city has never delivered that amount of waste and has paid millions of dollars in unused capacity.

A scathing 2014 report on the Orgaworldcontract bythe city's auditor generalfoundcouncil had been misled by staff, and had wasted $8 million in taxpayer money.

Coun. Rick Chiarelli, conceded that the new contract isn't perfect because the city should be trying to reduce the use of plastics, but he argued it's an improvement over the existing agreement.

"This is your last chance to vote for the old Orgaworld contract," Chiarellijoked to his colleagues.