Came across this great piece late last year, concerning the diversion of the city of Ottawa’s waste from the municipal landfill. According to the piece by the Ottawa Sun’s Susan Sherring, despite the entry of the infamous — and expensive green bin — Ottawa diverts one of the lowest percentages of residential trash from the city’s landfills. The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative compares a number of different service areas, including garbage, against mostly Ontario cities.

Here’s some interesting facts from the piece:

• Without a green bin program, the city of Windsor diverts 38% of its garbage from the landfill — not too far off from Ottawa’s 40%.
• The City of Sudbury does better at 45% diversion rate and it has a green bin program. On top of that, it collects plastic grocery bags and foam containers in its equivalent of the blue bin — two items not allowed in this city’s recycling program.

Read the piece here. What do you think?