Green bins will hit the curb in less than two years, Ottawa city council has decided.

After six years of pilot testing and 10 years of debate, council voted Wednesday in favour of starting a full-scale program in the fall of 2008 to compost Ottawa's organic waste.

It will cost the city about $10 million to provide green bins to 250,000 single-family dwellings across the city.
(CBC)

All but one of the 24 councillors, including the mayor, voted in favour of the plan to start the project with the help of a $7.25-million loan from the Canadian Federation of Municipalities, which comes with a $1-million grant.

Coun. Diane Holmes, who put forward the proposal, said the city has already waited too long to get started.

"It's been so proven in so many cities that it is astounding to me that we are still asking questions about it," she said.

Coun. Clive Doucet echoed that sentiment.

"I think it's really a mark of failure that we're having this discussion today. We should have passed this organics program two years ago," he said, adding that he thought the push to expand the Carp Dump may have motivated council to act.

Only Gord Hunter, who earlier expressed concern about the cost of taking out a loan to fund the program, voted against the plan.

Coun. Peter Hume said he thinks composting will save money in the long run.

"Landfills are incredibly expensive to establish and the longer we can have our landfill go, the better it is for taxpayers," he said in an interview following the decision.

Less to the landfill

The citywide program will provide 250,000 Ottawa single-family dwellings with green bins to collect egg shells, potato peels, apple cores, crumpled facial tissues and other organic waste. Initially, it will not be available to apartment dwellers.

According to the city's preliminary estimates, it will cost around $10 million for green bins and $15 million for a processing facility. The city will have a closer estimate of the costs once it receives bids for the contracts, which it will start soliciting almost immediately.

The city estimates the program will boost the proportion of garbage diverted away from landfills from 32 to 50 per cent.

Chris Wood, co-ordinator of the compost pilot project, estimated 100,000 tonnes of organic waste now goes into landfills each year.

"That could be composted and could be turned into an unrestricted use gardening compost," he said. "You can use it for gardens, as a top dressing for your lawn."

Many other major cities in Canada already have a green box program. Meanwhile, Ottawa sends a larger fraction of its garbage to the landfill than most other cities in Ontario.

Inge Vander Horst said her family never produced more than one bag of garbage a week during the compost pilot project. Here, she and daughter Emma Kerr fill their metal compost pail.
(CBC)

Participants in the pilot program such as Inge Vander Horst said composting dramatically reduced the amount of waste they sent to the dump and is easier and less smelly than they expected.

"Even with two adults and two kids, when they were both in diapers, we never needed more than one garbage can for a week's worth of garbage because so much of it is diverted into the compost," Vander Horst said.