City under pressure to sell public on using green bins
Only half of residents use them, clashing with a move to bar organics from landfills
The city will still have tonnes of work to do to keep kitchen slop out of the dump if the province follows through with a proposal to begin phasing out organic waste from landfills.
According to a projection done for the city, 49 per cent of all household organic waste and 34 per cent of dog waste would be captured in curbside collection and sent to the Orgaworld plant in 2022 under a green bin program that includes plastic bags.
It suggests that if the province starts phasing out organics from landfills in 2022, the next city council will need to seriously consider stronger ways to get more residents to use their green bins.
The analysis was done by Dillon Consulting and informed a business case underpinning the staff recommendation to let residents use plastic bags in the green bin. The confidential business case, obtained through access to information, was written before the city ’s environment committee and council earlier this year approved allowing plastic bags and dog feces in the green bin in mid-2019.
A proposed food and organic waste framework published by the province in November 2017 contemplates beginning consultations in 2018-2019 on a plan to eliminate organic waste from dumps in phases starting in 2022.
A little more than half of Ottawa residents use their green bins. Only about 40 per cent of household organic waste put out for curbside collection is going into the green bin. It’s likely almost all organic waste from multi-residential buildings is going to the dump.
The city is counting on the plastic bags to end the “yuck factor” for residents who turn their noses up at using their green bins.
“It would serve the city well to consider inclusion of plastic bags as part of its move-forward strategy to proactively condition residents’ waste disposal behaviours in order to work toward meeting the proposed provincial targets and landfill ban,” the city’s business case says.
The business case provides the full breakdown of the options available to the city to improve the organic waste program, whose private-sector processing contract is widely accepted as one of the worst deals signed by city hall. The city has recently improved the terms of the contract with Orgaworld.
Flip-flopping was one of the political “risks” identified by city staff in the business case if council approved plastics and dog feces for the organics program.
About eight years ago, the city opposed Orgaworld’s bid to accept plastic bags, dog feces and diapers at its plant in south Ottawa, fearing potential odour issues. In November 2011, the province’s Environmental Review Tribunal sided with Orgaworld, but the plant still wasn’t permitted to bring in the waste items without the city’s permission, under its processing agreement with the City of Ottawa.
Today, the city is preparing an education campaign on letting residents toss their kitchen scraps and dog feces into plastic bags and put the bags in the green bin. The business case puts the cost of the promotion and education program at $250,000. The public report approved by council talked about using $360,000 in savings from the organics contract for education.
Orgaworld is spending $9.4 million on upgrades to the plant, with a big chunk of the money going to prevent odours from seeping out.
The business case sets out the options for the green bin contract in response to a blistering audit of the deal.
Options discussed in open meetings include cancelling the contract and finding a new provider; cancelling the contract and building a municipal organics plant; allowing plastics and dog feces under the existing contract; sticking with the status quo; or renegotiating the contract and include plastic bags and dog feces.
Council went with the last option, which reduced the “put-orp-ay” threshold and the tonnage rate, while increasing the cost to the average homeowner by 15 cents per month. The option also ended lengthy legal fights between the city and Orgaworld.
The business case estimated what the city believed it would pay under the “termination for convenience” clause of the green bin contract at $4.226 million, plus a $1-million legal bill — the lowest end of the range released publicly. The termination for convenience payment could have been as high as $27 million.
There has always been uncertainty about how much it would cost to cancel the green bin contract. Even the city’s outside lawyers had trouble making sense of wishy-washy language in the original agreement. It’s now moot, of course. The city and Orgaworld have hammered out an updated agreement and the green bin lives on in Ottawa. The business case proposed a go-live date of Jan. 1, 2019, but the city changed it to mid-2019 by the time the recommendation was made public. Council will review a public education plan in late 2018 or early 2019. One political benefit of the new timeline, is that it keeps the green bin issue further away from the Oct. 22 municipal election.