Ottawa Garbage, Recycling and Green Bin: What Goes Where
Ottawa’s curbside system has three parts. Garbage is collected by the City and is limited in quantity. Green bin organics are collected by the City without a limit. Recycling is collected on the City’s behalf by Circular Materials, a non-profit working for product producers under Ontario’s producer responsibility framework, and is also unlimited.
The City’s own framing is that the landfill is filling up and that more than half of what currently goes to landfill belongs in recycling or the green bin. This guide explains how each stream works, how the garbage limit is enforced, and where items go when the curb is the wrong place.
The three streams at the curb
Leaf and yard waste is collected separately on a seasonal basis, with its own set-out rules. Your actual collection days come from the City’s collection calendar for your address, which is also where holiday changes are published.
- Garbage — collected by the City, with a limit on how many items a household may set out and a yellow bag system for anything above it.
- Green bin — food waste and other accepted organics, collected by the City with no limit on how much you set out.
- Recycling — collected by Circular Materials, sorted into fibres and glass, metal and plastics bins, also with no limit.
The garbage limit and yellow bags
Garbage is limited by item count. An item can be a bag, a bin or container within the City’s size and weight limits, or a bulky item such as a piece of furniture, and each counts once. Containers must have a removable lid, must not be overloaded, and the garbage must fit entirely inside with the lid closed. Cardboard boxes are not acceptable garbage containers, because they are recyclable.
Anything above the limit must be placed in a City-branded yellow bag. Garbage above the limit that is not in a yellow bag is not collected, and a courtesy tag is left explaining why.
The green bin
The green bin takes food waste: mouldy and spoiled food, fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, meat and bones, grease and cooking oil, and plate scrapings. Sawdust, cold wood ashes and similar material can be bagged and put in the green bin as well. The material is processed into a nutrient-rich soil amendment used on farmland rather than being landfilled, which is the point of the programme.
The City publishes a list of what is accepted in the green bin, and it is worth checking for anything unusual, because non-organic material in the bin undermines the compost that comes out of the other end.
Recycling rules
Recycling is split into two bins: the fibres bin for paper and cardboard, and the glass, metal and plastics bin for containers. They are collected on alternating cycles, so the bin that goes out changes from one collection to the next, and the collection calendar is how you know which is due.
Recyclable packaging must not be put in the garbage. It is also no longer accepted at the landfill: the Trail Waste Facility stopped accepting glass, metal, plastic and cardboard packaging, which must go back into the curbside recycling programme. If an item is brought to the landfill inside a recyclable box, the box has to be removed and taken home.
Large items and the Trail Waste Facility
Bulky items that cannot be set out at the curb go to the Trail Waste Facility landfill on Trail Road. It accepts household garbage and a range of divertible materials, including scrap metal, electronic waste, tires within quantity limits, and brush and yard waste. Rates depend on the load, and some materials are accepted free of charge or at a different rate from general garbage.
The facility has rules worth knowing before loading a vehicle. Payment at the scale house is contactless, sorting materials before arrival is recommended so that divertible items are not charged as garbage, recyclable packaging must stay out, and CSA-certified footwear and high-visibility clothing are required in the main disposal area and the tipping small-load area.
Hazardous waste, electronic waste and other special items have their own disposal routes, published separately by the City, and should not be taken to the landfill as general garbage.
Getting it right on collection day
- Set garbage out at the curb after the permitted evening time and before collection on your collection day.
- Place bags and containers on the ground near the road, not on the sidewalk, the roadway or on top of snow banks.
- Set out the recycling bin that is due that week — fibres one collection, glass, metal and plastics the next.
- Tie and bundle carpet, and keep it within the City’s size and weight limits.
- Put broken glass in a sealed, clearly marked box set out with the garbage.
- Report a missed collection through 311 rather than assuming it will be picked up later.
Official sources
- City of Ottawa — garbage and recycling
- City of Ottawa — curbside garbage collection and provincial recycling program
- City of Ottawa — green bin
- City of Ottawa — waste facility landfills (Trail Waste Facility)
- City of Ottawa — Waste Explorer
- City of Ottawa — hazardous waste, electronic waste and special items
Details such as fares, fees, hours and program rules change. Always confirm against the official source before acting on anything time-sensitive.
More Ottawa guides
- Ottawa 311 and City Services: What the City Handles, and What It Does Not
How Ottawa 311 works, why the federal government’s presence causes so much misrouting, and how the Ontario-Quebec boundary across the river changes what a resident should expect.
- Getting Around Ottawa: OC Transpo, the O-Train and the Transitway
How OC Transpo combines O-Train light rail with the Transitway bus corridors, why the river boundary matters for transit planning, and how to plan a trip in the capital region.
- Official Ottawa Information Sources: City, Transit and the Levels of Government
The authoritative Ottawa sources for municipal services and transit, how to tell a City source from a lookalike, and how to keep municipal, provincial and federal information straight.
- Getting Around Ottawa: The O-Train and OC Transpo
How Ottawa’s O-Train lines and OC Transpo bus network fit together, how fares and passes are organised, and how accessibility and Para Transpo work.
- Ottawa Winter Parking Rules and Snow Clearing
How Ottawa declares and announces winter weather parking bans, what the on-street rules are, who clears what, and how to report a street that has not been ploughed.
About this guide
This guide was researched and written by ChatYOW Editorial for readers in Ottawa, Ontario. It describes how City systems and services work rather than quoting figures that change, and links to the official source wherever a detail is time-sensitive or set by policy.
If you spot something out of date, please tell us and we will review it.