NCC hopes canal green bins help recycling goal, If successful, green bins could be added on Canada Day

Posted Feb 16, 2012 By Laura Mueller

EMC news - New green bins for organic waste on the Rideau Canal Skateway are aimed at helping the National Capital Commission reach a lofty waste-diversion goal.

Success is far off, but Emilie Lagacé, a member of the NCC's environmental strategy team, said providing the bins for visitors' food waste should have an impact.

By next year, the NCC wants to reduce the waste going to landfills from its three main events - Winterlude, the skateway and Canada Day - by 50 per cent from the 2009-10 season.

That would mean reducing the garbage produced on the skateway alone to 11.1 tonnes per season. But despite tackling its environmental action plan since 2009, the NCC landfilled 30.7 tonnes of waste last year.

The NCC purposefully set a lofty goal, Lagacé said, by making the target the same, no matter how many days the skateway is open. Last year was a long season, so visitors produced more waste, she said.

While food concessions on the canal have been using a green-bin program behind the scenes for a couple of years, 2012 marks the first year that visitors can drop their food waste, napkins, paper cups and wooden popsicle sticks into organic waste bins.

The bins will be located near the snack shacks and rest areas along the entire 8.8-kilometre skateway.

It's a partnership with the city, which provides the bins and hauls the organic waste from the NCC contractor's yard to the organics-processing facilty.

In addition to the 17 bins along the canal, there are also green bins in Confederation Park this year for Winterlude.

If it's successful on the canal this winter, the green bin program could be expanded to include Canada Day celebrations on July 1, Lagacé said.

The NCC has launched another environmental initiative this year with the hope of encouraging people to recycle organics on the canal and help reduce the trash going to the landfill. During Winterlude weekends, a Green Squad of volunteers were set to be out on the skateway to inform visitors about the NCC's environmental initiatives, Lagacé said.

About a dozen volunteers on skates were set to participate in the Green Squad each weekend until Winterlude ends on Feb. 20.