Last year, Ottawa residents threw out tonnes of garbage that could easily have been reused, reduced or recycled. That wasn’t only bad for the environment, it meant millions of dollars in lost revenue.

A new campaign launched this week by the City of Ottawa is encouraging all residents to RETHINK GARBAGE — from how much we generate to our choices of disposal. That’s because, despite some 25 years of recycling, we continue to send more than 2/3 of our household waste to landfill.

Along with other Ontario municipalities, Ottawa is working towards the provincial waste diversion target of 60 per cent by 2008. That means we have less than two years to double the amount of household garbage that we currently keep out of our landfills.

The RETHINK GARBAGE campaign will encourage residents to examine how they can reduce their day-to-day waste and take full advantage of the City’s diversion programs — including Blue and Black boxes, backyard composting, Take it Back!, and household hazardous waste depots.

We can all generate less household waste. To start, we need to think about garbage before we generate it. The less we bring home, the less we need to throw out. Resisting disposable products and unnecessary packaging could dramatically reduce what ends up in the trash. And rethinking what we consider to be garbage, by reusing and recycling will ensure valuable materials are kept out of Ottawa’s landfills.

Ottawa places a large amount of waste in its landfills each year. In fact, 213,000 tonnes of our waste ended up in landfill in 2005. If you loaded that much waste on transport trucks you would end up with a convoy of 25,000 vehicles. In that same year, the City received nearly $13 million from revenue and funding from recycling. But more than $1 million in possible recyclables lay in waste in landfills.

For example, valuable items that belong in the Black Box — including milk cartons, computer and household paper, and juice boxes — end up in our garbage bags each year. In addition, aluminum foil and trays that can go in the Blue Box only had a five percent conversion rate.

Waste diversion is a true community effort. Businesses and local organizations also continue to support our city’s waste diversion effort — by allowing you the opportunity to Take it Back! The City’s Take it Back! program involves more than 500 businesses and institutions that will take back the household items for reuse or disposal – including tires, batteries, motor oil, medication and toners.

For example, Loeb is part of this program as the first grocery chain in Ottawa to take back and recycle plastic grocery bags into new bags. This Loeb initiative not only prevents the bags filling up our landfills, but part of the proceeds goes to United Way/Centraide Ottawa.

Reaching our first goal of 40 per cent and the ultimate waste diversion goal of 60 per cent can be easily attained if we RETHINK GARBAGE and put recycling into action.

To find out more, visit ottawa.ca/rethinkgarbage or call 3-1-1 (TTY: 613-580-2401)

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