Why these highrise tower residents were keen to go green

When Margaret Boland moved from her house in Alta Vista into a Riviera condo tower on Riverside Drive in 2019, the lack of waste diversion was one of the first things she noticed.

The Riviera's Classicstower, which opened in 1991, had arecycling room on the ground floor, but everything else was being tossed into the 29-storey building's garbage chute.

"You had people already coming down bringing theirrecyclables, but not their organic waste. Why not?" Boland said.

The answer seemed obvious to her: add a couple of green bins in the recycling room and ask residents to drop their organic waste in it.

"The idea that you would throwcompostable material down a chute went against every fibrein my body," she said.

Ottawa's waste diversion rate in multi-residential units sits at just 17 per cent a number the city hopes to boost as it nowrequires any new residential multi-unit complex(six units or more) to be equipped to handle organicwaste.

Complexes like the Riviera that predate June 1 will eventually have to do the same.

Since the addition of compost bins was not yet mandatory, the building's condo board was hesitant and asked for a detailed plan of how it would all work.

Bolandstarted spreading the word and soon, a small group of residents inthe 193-unit tower joined her effort.

Overcoming'ick factor'

Followingmeetings and discussions with hercondo board, the property manager, and the City of Ottawa, Boland and her team managed to install two large green compost bins in the recycling roomin January 2022.

According to Boland,about half of the residents are now routinely participating in the composting program.

"We've had very little opposition," she said.

LeslieHolland, another composting group volunteer at the tower, credits the city's decisionin 2019 to allow plastic bags in the organic waste streamas an important factor in the program's uptake.

"It takes away any real smell and the ickfactor," said Holland.

Concerns about odour, rats, and maggots were the main impediments for some residents, but resident Lesley Stewart pointedout thesame wet, organic waste was being tossed exclusively in the building's garbage chute for decades,and ending up in theindoor trash compactor.

"It washorrible, it was awful," said Stewart. "The compactor was leaking all over the floor and the smell was just horrendous."

The green bin removes that issue and beyond that immediate benefit, Bolandsaidthe environment remains the main motivator.

"We declare emergencies and then we sit on our thumbs," she said. "I thinkwe should all be doing this as part of just ourgift to our children and grandchildren."

City eager to help residents

The group of volunteers at the Classicscredits staff at the City of Ottawa with helping set up the composting program in their tower.

The job of assisting residents with waste issues in multi-unit complexes falls to Kyle Brydges, a waste management inspector with the city, who credited the group for their enthusiasm.

"They made my job easy because they were willing to take on the challenge," said Brydges.

Brydges says the city provides the green bins, kitchen containers for residents, and will do its best to ensure the bins are collected on the building property, which makes things easier for the property manager.

The city estimates about half of the city's existing 2,100 multi-residential complexes areparticipating in some form in the organics program, a figure Brydgesalso credits in large part to the decision to accept plastic bags.