City of Ottawa committee approves new garbage plan for 4-day collection week, use of private landfills

If your garbage day is normally Friday, it could change to another day of the week in a couple of years.

The city of Ottawa's environment and climate change committee has approved a plan to drop Fridays as a waste collection day.

Instead, workers will pull longer hours Monday to Thursday. Staff say this would eliminate the need for residents to set out waste for collection on weekends following a statutory holiday.

"It's more efficient to collect four days across the city of Ottawa. We'll use Fridays for those opportunities when there's a stat holiday where collection is postponed one day," said Coun. Riley Brockington.

While the shifts for the garbage collection workers would be longer, Brockington says the city believes the change would not impact the actual collection hours each day, so there wouldn't be garbage trucks running late into the evening.

The city will also cease taking leaf and yard waste in the green bin.

If approved by council, the changes would not come into effect until March 2026. Residents will be informed of their new pickup dates before the changes come into effect.

Garbage collection will continue to be picked up every other week, while the green bin will be picked up weekly.

"I don't see a big change here. It doesn't seem like a reduction in service. It's just a change of hours," Barrhaven resident Rob Lanthier told CTV News Ottawa.

Full city council will vote on the changes Sept. 27. 

Some waste to go to private landfills

Committee also approved a plan to redirect 60,000 tonnes of residential garbage per year to two private landfills.

The plan would help extend the lifespan of the Trail Road landfill by at least two years, staff say.

It would cost the city $8 million a year to divert 60,000 tonnes of trash to the two private landfills, but staff say it would be offset by "operational efficiencies, fuel savings and extending the life of the Trail Waste Facility Landfill by preserving valuable air space," according to a report prepared for committee.

The two private landfills available for the city of Ottawa to send residential waste to are Waste Management's West Carleton Environmental Centre on Carp Road and the GFL's Transfer Station on Corduroy Road in conjunction with the Moose Creek Landfill.

"So up to one-third of Ottawa's new garbage waste is targeted to go to these private landfills. They’re closer to a lot of where the trucks are collecting now, but also this will lengthen the lifespan of our current Trail Road site," Brockington says.

The landfill on Trail Road is expected to be full in the next 13 to 15 years. City staff are working on a solid waste master plan that would help extend the life of the landfill and propose medium- and long-term solutions for handling household waste in the capital.

In the spring, council voted in favour of implementing a three-garbage bin limit for households every two weeks to help reduce waste going to the city landfill.

--With files from CTV News Ottawa's Josh Pringle and Dave Charbonneau.