Green bin use at about 40% in Ottawa

Ottawa's green bin program has helped the city divert almost 5,000 tonnes of organic material from landfills since January, but a city official says adoption of the program remains slow in some areas.

About 40 per cent of homes in the municipality were using the bins in March, said Marilyn Journeaux, manager of the city's solid-waste operations.

Journeaux said the green bin program has proved popular in some neighbourhoods, less so in others.

"The neighbourhoods currently that have close to 100 per cent participation are areas like Stittsville, Barrhaven, Orleans and The Glebe," she said.

"If you look at them, there are a lot of young families and younger people are more amenable to change and understand the importance of the environment and [they] want to preserve the environment for their children."

The green bin program launched on Jan. 4 with the aim of delivering roughly 1,500 tonnes of organic materials to the Orgaworld Canada compost facility every week. But through the first three months, the city is picking up an average of less than 400 tonnes, although the diversion rate increased 30 per cent from January to March.

The target of roughly 1,500 tonnes is based on the 20-year contract Orgaworld has with the city to compost 80,000 tonnes of green bin waste a year.

At $93.50 a tonne, the city will be forced to pay the company at least $7.4 million, regardless of how much organic waste it collects.

Ottawa's solid-waste department said it hopes leaves and yard waste generated in the spring, summer and fall will help balance the shortfall.

Across the Ottawa River, the Quebec city of Gatineau also announced on Thursday it would begin collecting compostible materials in early May.

The city plans to deliver 80,000 "brown bins" to single-family and semi-detached homes between May and August and hopes to compost 9,000 tonnes of material by the end of 2010.