Written by guest blogger Denise Deby, who has worked in international and community development, and is currently trying to figure out how to connect the local with the global in her everyday life.
What do apple cores, sawdust, weeds, cooking oil, kitty litter and empty pizza boxes have in common?
They’re all accepted as part of the City of Ottawa’s Green Bin program.
The City launched the program on September 21, with an event at City Hall, an interactive website, and displays of green bins in public places, like my local library branch and community centre. Collection from green bins doesn’t start until January 2010, but the bins and accompanying white kitchen containers will be delivered to most residents between now and December. Service to some highrise apartments and some rural residents will take a bit longer, according to the City’s website.
The material that the City collects through the Green Bin program will go to an Orgaworld processing plant in southeast Ottawa, where it will be converted into compost. Orgaworld will retain 90 percent of the compost and the City of Ottawa 10 per cent, which it will use for city and community-based greening projects.
The City estimates that currently about 45 percent of garbage by weight of an average Ottawa household consists of compostable organic material that can now go into the green bins, and be reused as compost. Better than going to landfills, if all works as planned.
I was pleasantly surprised by the range of stuff that can be put in green bins, much more than I put in my backyard compost, so I’m looking forward to receiving mine.
Green Living Ottawa 
Ooo…I can’t wait. We already recycle as much as we can, and have very little garbage to show for it: we can often skip a week on garbage day. To keep indoor garbage from smelling, we freeze leftover food garbage (fat, bones, etc), but this takes up space in the freezer. Now we can just dump it into the greenbin! Yippee!
Great posting, thanks for the info,
I was curious to know more about this Orgaworld processing plant and where it is located. The weblink mentions that they will use the organic waste to make biogas… but it seems to be in the Netherlands only… will the one here in Ottawa be putting green energy back into our grid?
Thanks
Good question. The processing plant is at Rideau Road and Hawthorne Road. So far I’ve only seen mention of producing compost. I asked the City about it, and they replied that Orgaworld will sell its 90 percent share of the compost to local farmers.
I was not asked about the green bin tax. I already compost. I am dumping this piece of junk back at city hall. I encourage everyone to dump their green bins in front of City Hall.