Three Ottawa high school students hope to convince the City of Ottawa to adopt a plan to reduce the number of garbage bags put out for pickup each week.
"Our dump is filling up and we need to find a way to stop it or slow it down," said Alice Wilson, a student at Merivale High School.
As part of a project for her Grade 10 civics class, Wilson teamed up with friends Shawdy Shadmand and Samantha Hetherington to get people talking about waste and ways to reduce it.
Each of their families abides by a one-bag rule when it comes to garbage, and now they want others to do the same.
"You can buy things with less wrapping; you can recycle more things than you think and composting gets rid of a lot of waste," said Wilson.
"Statistics show that only 15 per cent of the things in the black garbage are actually waste, the rest is all recyclables or compostables."
According to estimates from the City of Ottawa, more than 35 per cent of the garbage residents put on the curb every week is organic waste that could be composted.
Although Ottawa has a green bin composting program in the works to help cut down on the amount of waste sent to area landfills, the program has been delayed several times and its start date has been pushed back from the fall to January.
"I think once everybody has those bins, it will be much easier to get down to a bag," said Shadmand.
Still, the trio is pushing ahead with its campaign, launching a petition to encourage city council to adopt a new rule that would limit each household to one bag of garbage per week.
"Some people really love the idea -- they think they can really do it. But other people just can't see themselves getting down to a bag," said Shadmand.
What do you think? Can you get down to one bag of garbage per week? Have your say by posting a comment below.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Natalie Pierosara
