Ottawa has a waste problem, and most of it is food waste.
According to the city’s 2023/2024 Four Season Waste Audit, released in October 2025, 43 per cent of waste sent to landfill from single-family homes could be diverted to the green bin. In fact, the percentage of waste sent to landfill that belongs in the green bin is higher than the 41 per cent of waste that is not divertable.
The percentage of waste sent to landfill that is divertible through the green bin remains similarly high for multi-residential homes and small businesses, at 39 per cent and 37 per cent respectively.
“In general, we’re not diverting enough—particularly organics,” a press release from Ecology Ottawa states. “We’re doing better with black bin and blue bin materials: only 6 to 8 percent (in each category) of what’s going to landfill constituted these materials. Overall, 55 per cent of what we’re sending to landfill—that is, more than half of what’s in our trash—could have been diverted.”
What is perhaps more concerning is those numbers have moved little since the last audit conducted over 2018/2019.
That audit showed that 58 per cent of waste sent to landfill could have been diverted and 45 per cent was green bin material.
In an update to the Environment and Climate Change Committee, the city says the high proportion of green bin material sent to landfill highlights a “significant opportunity to improve organic waste diversion and reduce the volume of landfill-bound material”.
The audit shows that the majority of food waste is unavoidable, but still 27 to 45 per cent of food waste could be avoided. This includes items that could have been consumed or preserved. The highest proportion comes from small businesses.
But many small businesses are getting creative to reduce their food waste from both a waste diversion perspective but also a financial perspective.
“You want to make sure you have enough,” the owner of Kaisa’s cupcakes, an Ottawa bakery, told CityNews. “Sometimes you’re dead on but the last thing you need is to be short.”
That often means making more stock. Especially around the holidays, this can lead to a surplus. But Kaisa says she uses the app Too Good To Go to sell any surplus product, and people are buying it.
“There’s a whole community out there, it’s incredible. They are very excited about using [the app] and discovering new businesses like myself,” she said.
Between June 2022 and January 2025, nearly 300,000 meals were saved from 470 local businesses, a spokesperson for Too Good To Go previously told CityNews in an email statement.
It also provides a unique opportunity for a business like Kaisa’s that thrive on precision. Too Good To Go allows her to sell product at a reduced price that she wouldn’t give to her regular clients.
“If you’re very popular on there, then people might want to come buy stuff that’s not otherwise going to be tossed,” she said.