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About half of Ottawa households with curbside waste collection will see their pickup schedules change at the end of March.
The changes coincide with a new collection contract that starts Monday, March 30.
Frequency will remain the same: weekly pickup for organic and yard waste, alternating weekly pickup for recyclables and biweekly pickup for garbage. Holidays will continue to delay that week’s pickup by one day.
Once the new collection contract kicks in, some homes will have their paper recycling picked up two weeks in a row, but their plastics and garbage will pile up for three weeks, for example.
To help with the transition, from March 30 until April 24, the city will allow residents to place up to six items at the curb on garbage pickup day, twice the normal limit.
The new schedules are available online, but the city said it will also mail out notices in late February. It’s also promising at least one more waste pickup calendar for 2026-27 before focusing on digital listings.
Under the new contract, leaf and yard waste must be separated from green bin recycling.
A number of changes to the city’s recycling program, including an expanded list of eligible items, took effect Jan. 1 under a new provincewide recycling system.