Waste, Water & Sewage

Most residential waste is collected at curbside by the City. Total residential waste collected in Ottawa has remained relatively steady since 2005. This means there has been some decline in per capita waste generation. But consistent levels of “throughput” suggest that overall consumption levels, and all the associated “upstream” impacts, have not significantly diminished.

There has, however, been a significant decline in the amount of waste going to landfill (i.e., garbage). In 2010, the year the Green Bin program was introduced, garbage declined by 12% compared to the previous year. In 2013, the first full year of bi-weekly garbage collection, it declined by another 18% compared to 2011.

Waste from the private and institutional sectors accounts for well over half the total waste going to landfill, but is not a municipal responsibility.

Based on Statistics Canada’s Households and the Environment Survey in 2011, 85% of Ottawa residents participated in the composting of yard waste and 63% in composting kitchen waste, either via curbside collection or on their own properties. This is a relatively high participation rate among major Canadian cities.

The proportion of Ottawa households separating compost for collection at curbside rose from 48% in 2007 to 69% in 2011, partly reflecting the introduction of the Green Bin program in 2010. Prior to this, curbside collection was offered only for yard waste.

Notwithstanding this level of participation in curbside composting programs, much of the material still going to landfill could be diverted through green bins.

The residential sector, compared to the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors, is a much larger consumer of municipally-supplied water in Ottawa. That said, between 2007 and 2015, per capita use of water by Ottawa residents dropped by over 20%. Based on 2009 data, of Canada’s six major cities, only Edmonton had a lower rate of residential consumption.

Water metering and pricing have been cited as reasons for declining residential water consumption across Canada. Ottawa’s advanced meter infrastructure program began in mid-2011. Although the rate structure did not change at this time, the resulting public profile may have made residents more aware that they pay per volume for water use. Adoption of efficient fixtures such as low flush toilets and low flow shower heads has also been promoted and in some instances financially supported by the City for over a decade.

Declining consumption has resulted in a significant drop in volumes of water processed at Ottawa’s two treatment facilities – an average of 275.3 megalitres per day in 2013, compared to 369 in 2001. Ottawa’s drinking water comes primarily from the Ottawa River, so the source is not limited. However, water treatment and distribution, and wastewater treatment, are energy intensive processes. So a key environmental benefit of decreased water consumption is reduced energy use and associated GHG emissions.

In 2017, 82% of Ottawa households used tap water for drinking, compared to 76% in 2013. For the most part, all of Canada’s major cities have seen a progressive increase in the use of tap water for drinking since 2009.

Growth in the use of tap water for drinking is good news environmentally, since the energy and resources associated with producing and filling bottles, and shipping them often long distances, far exceeds what is used by public utilities to process local sources for tap water.

In 2017, bottled water was the main source of drinking water for 19% of Canadians.

Though the volume of diluted sewage emptied into the Ottawa River from city of Ottawa sewers was high, the number of instances of sewage overflow was the lowest in the past 10 years The largest factor in this volume is rain. The city recorded 923 millimetres of precipitation during the provincial reporting period (April 15 – November 15) in 2017, the most over the past 12 years.