Ottawa has a waste problem, and most of it is food waste.<\/p>\n
According to the city\u2019s 2023\/2024\u00a0Four Season Waste Audit<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn general, we\u2019re not diverting enough\u2014particularly organics,\u201d a press release from Ecology Ottawa states. \u201cWe\u2019re doing better with black bin and blue bin materials: only 6 to 8 percent (in each category) of what\u2019s going to landfill constituted these materials.\u00a0Overall, 55 per cent of what we\u2019re sending to landfill\u2014that is, more than half of what\u2019s in our trash\u2014could have been diverted.\u201d<\/p>\n What is perhaps more concerning is those numbers have moved little since the last audit conducted over 2018\/2019.<\/p>\n That audit showed that 58 per cent of waste sent to landfill could have been diverted and 45 per cent was green bin material.<\/p>\n 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 \u201csignificant opportunity to improve organic waste diversion and reduce the volume of landfill-bound material\u201d. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n But many small businesses are getting creative to reduce their food waste from both a waste diversion perspective but also a financial perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to make sure you have enough,\u201d the owner of Kaisa\u2019s cupcakes, an Ottawa bakery, told CityNews. \u201cSometimes you\u2019re dead on but the last thing you need is to be short.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/a> <\/a>to sell any surplus product, and people are buying it.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a whole community out there, it\u2019s incredible. They are very excited about using [the app] and discovering new businesses like myself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Between June 2022 and January 2025,\u00a0nearly 300,000 meals were saved from 470 local businesses, a spokesperson for Too Good To Go previously told CityNews in an email statement.<\/p>\n It also provides a unique opportunity for a business like Kaisa\u2019s that thrive on precision. Too Good To Go allows her to sell product at a reduced price that she wouldn\u2019t give to her regular clients.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re very popular on there, then people might want to come buy stuff that\u2019s not otherwise going to be tossed,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa has a waste problem, and most of it is food waste. According to the city\u2019s 2023\/2024\u00a0Four Season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-216421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}