Bi-Weekly Garbage Pickup in Ottawa

Ottawa switched to bi-weekly garbage pickup to save $10 million and boost recycling. Here is what the change means for residents and how to handle items curbside pickup cannot take.

Ottawa Switches to Bi-Weekly Garbage Pickup

In 2012, Ottawa made a significant change to its waste collection schedule by switching to bi-weekly garbage pickup. The move was expected to save the City of Ottawa approximately $10 million annually and significantly curb the growth of the Carp Road landfill. Weekly compost collection continued on a seven-day cycle, but regular garbage was now only being picked up every two weeks.

The city's municipal website outlined the specifics of the new schedule and even offered a reminder service that notified residents via email — a handy tool for keeping track of which week was a pickup week. This was part of a broader effort by the city to reduce waste management costs while encouraging residents to think more carefully about what they throw away.

The Numbers Behind the Change

The switch to bi-weekly collection was driven by some sobering statistics about Ottawa's waste diversion efforts:

These numbers highlighted a clear gap between where Ottawa was and where it needed to be on waste diversion. By making garbage pickup less frequent, the city was essentially forcing households to confront just how much recyclable material they were throwing into the trash instead of sorting it properly.

The Six-Bag Limit Challenge

Under the new system, residents were limited to putting out just six bags of trash every two weeks. For many households, especially larger families, this required a real adjustment in how they managed their waste. The limit was intentionally designed to push people toward using their blue bins for recyclable materials and their green bins for compostable waste.

The green bin program, which continued on a weekly schedule, became more important than ever. Food scraps, yard waste, and other organic materials that might have previously gone into the garbage now needed to be properly composted. For residents who were not already using their green bin, the bi-weekly schedule was a wake-up call.

What Goes Where? The Waste Explorer

One of the most useful tools the city introduced alongside the schedule change was the Waste Explorer — an online tool designed to help residents identify exactly what goes where in their trash, recycling, and compost bins. Figuring out whether a specific item belongs in the blue bin, the green bin, or needs special disposal can be genuinely confusing, and the Waste Explorer aimed to take the guesswork out of sorting.

This kind of confusion is exactly what leads to contamination problems in recycling streams. When residents are unsure, they tend to throw everything in the garbage — which defeats the purpose of having separate collection streams in the first place.

The Impact on Junk and Bulky Items

What the bi-weekly schedule did not address was what happens when residents have items that simply do not fit in any bin. Old furniture, broken appliances, renovation debris, electronic waste, and other bulky items cannot go out with regular garbage. They require separate trips to the landfill or a special pickup arrangement.

For many Ottawa residents, this has been one of the biggest frustrations with the waste management system. You can sort your recyclables perfectly, use your green bin religiously, and still end up with a garage full of items that have nowhere to go. Appliances with refrigerant need professional Freon removal before disposal. Mattresses take up enormous space. Old electronics contain hazardous materials that should never end up in a landfill.

How Junk That Funk Fills the Gap

This is where Junk That Funk comes in. Since 2007, we have been helping Ottawa residents deal with exactly the items that the city's curbside program cannot handle. Whether it is a single piece of furniture or an entire household cleanout, we pick it up, sort it, and ensure that up to 80 percent of what we collect is recycled or donated rather than going to the landfill.

Our junk removal service is particularly valuable for residents who are doing spring cleaning, moving, or renovating. When you are generating more waste than six bags every two weeks can handle, and the items are too big or too specialized for curbside pickup, we are the solution.

By Junk That Funk — Junk That Funk Blog