The City responds to your question about composting

I could have put this in the original post about Green Bins and composting, but it’s a couple of days old now and I wanted to make sure you guys saw it.

One of our regular commenters, Windex, asked the following question:

You know I was talking about the bin to the hubby last night as he is opposed to it big time and he was saying the biggest complaint is why we pay $14 million a year to give it to a company who will make a profit on it – but I am thinking he is missing info from statement – Can anyone fill in the blanks? Are we really given our compost to them for free?

I sent the question back through my PR contact, and she provided this response directly from Chris Wood, the Waste Diversion Project Coordinator for the City of Ottawa:

The specifics of the City’s contract with Orgaworld allows for the company to retain 90 per cent of the compost and the City retains 10 per cent. The city will use its 10per cent for internal greening efforts and community-based tree planting and garden projects. Orgaworld plans on selling its share to the local Ottawa farming community—our community wins here too, as farmers are able to get good yields without relying on chemical fertilizers. This same process has been successful in other communities such as London, ON– to the point where they have more demand for compost than they can supply. In fact, the compost Orgaworld plans to create from Ottawa’s waste has already been sold!

While yes, the City is paying Orgaworld $93.40 per tonne of waste, Orgaworld is also investing in our community, building $20 million dollar facility, and employing local residents. The main benefit to Ottawa though will be seen through the extended life of existing landfills, allowing the City to defer the cost of setting up new landfills (which is always contentious and expensive). The Green Bin program, along with other waste diversion strategies, are part of the City’s goal to achieve 60 per cent waste diversion.

Thanks for a good question, Windex, and to the City of Ottawa for a prompt, informative and IMHO, very reasonable reply.

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