Ottawa council approves three container cap on curbside waste collection

Three containers, no tags for additional bags.

The City of Ottawa has decided not to proceed with a ‘pay-as-you-throw’ garbage collection plan after council voted Wednesday, June 14, to limit residential waste to three containers every two weeks, with no tags for additional bags.

This means residents can only dispose of the amount of waste that will fit into those containers.

In a tweet on Monday, June 12, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said he began working on another amended motion, this time with councillors Marty Carr, David Brown, and chair of the environment committee Shawn Menard, after several residents expressed their concern about the proposed ‘bag tag’ system.

The initial proposal, which failed last week at the committee level due to a tie vote, would have included 55 annual bag tags for every household and that each garbage bag, container or bulky item would require a tag at $3.00 per item.

Mayor Sutcliffe said this latest amended motion would allow homeowners to dispose of a maximum of three containers of garbage every two weeks. He clarified that a container can hold “two or three ” bags but that the container itself would only count as one item and that there would be “no tag system.”

This amendment also includes the proposal for a third-party review of waste-diversion data.

Council is looking for alternative methods of garbage collection in an attempt to divert waste from the Trail Road Landfill, which a different third-party review commissioned by the city stated is only 10-15 years away from the end of its lifecycle.

“I believe we have found a common ground that reflects the feedback we’ve received during the past few weeks,” said Sutcliffe.