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O awa South News Proudly serving the community
February 27, 2014 | 36 pages
OttawaCommunityNews.com
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Inside NEWS
Ottawa ComicCon rolling out red carpet for horror, sci-fi guests. – Page 3
COMMUNITY
ADAM KVETON/METROLAND
Busting out cancer Yoga instructor Mark Laham of MindBody Kinect leads more than 250 people through yoga moves during the Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation’s Bust a Move for breast health event at the Ottawa Athletic Club on Feb. 22. Participants committed to raising $1,000 each for the event, which has pushed the event to more than $1 million raised over the last three years. A local community group continues to thrive in the south. – Page 5
Ottawans recycling more than half of household waste Laura Mueller
BUSINESS
A cancer survivor opens up a boutique to help others cope with the disease. – Page 20
laura.mueller@metroland.com
News - For the first time since Ottawa introduced the green bin, residents are recycling more than half of household waste. Some of the material residents put into their green bins is ending up in the dump even though the city thinks it’s recyclable. That’s because Orgaworld, the facility contracted to process the organic waste, didn’t accept all the waste that was collected. A contract that’s currently in arbitration stipulates the city must provide 80,000
tonnes of processable organic waste each year. Even though the amount of organics collected jumped from 67,000 tonnes in 2012 to 83,000 in 2013, the city is still paying to process tonnes of those organic materials twice. Orgaworld only processed 69,000 tonnes or 83 per cent of the organic waste collected in 2013, said River Coun. Maria McRae, the chairwoman of the environment committee. NOT ALL PROCESSED
“In a word, it’s disgraceful that we have collected 83,000 tonnes and all of that waste has not been processed,”
McRae said. “This city did its job. Our residents did their job. We picked up 83,000 tonnes. Why is that not being processed? That’s the question we should ask.” Due to arbitration confidentiality there’s not much the city can say about the issue that’s preventing Orgaworld from accepting and processing all the organic waste put into green bins, said city solicitor Rick O’Connor. O’Connor said that arbitration decision – and the completed city audit on the Orgaworld contract – will be made available to the public sometime this year, he said.
The achievement of boosting the amount of material diverted from the landfill from 45 per cent in 2012 to 52 per cent in 2013 is a bittersweet milestone until the city can ensure all of that diverted material doesn’t end up in the Trail Road landfill, McRae said. The jump in diversion can mostly be attributed to a change in waste collection aimed at extending the lifespan of the city’s landfill, McRae said. In September of 2012, the city started collecting garbage every other week in an effort to get residents to put more waste in recycling bins. The
green bin was introduced in 2010. Those efforts have already extended the use of the landfill to about 2040, McRae said, putting off a very divisive and expensive effort to site a new landfill. MULTI-RESIDENTIAL UNITS LEFT OUT
Only 160 of the city’s estimated 1,000 multi-residential buildings – like condos and apartments – are using the green bin. That represents approximately 7,770 units across the city.
The perfect family march break activity Little Rays Reptiles
Thursday, March 13th, 2014 1910 St. Laurent Blvd. (corner of St. Laurent & Smyth)
EXHIBIT FROM 11am to 3pm SHOWS at noon and 2pm
R0022509549-0227
See WASTE, page 2