Here's how much waste Ottawa households generated ahead of the new 3-item garbage limit

The city of Ottawa's landfill could soon reach capacity in 12-15 years. Last month, city council voted to limit the number of trash containers to three per household. Building a new landfill could cost hundreds of millions of dollars. (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)

There was a decrease in the amount of waste heading to the City of Ottawa's landfill in the two months leading up to the city's new three-item garbage limit.

As of Monday, households are limited to three items of trash every two weeks as part of a plan to extend the life of the Trail Road Landfill to 2049.  Ottawa is phasing in enforcement of the new garbage limit, with warnings issued in October and full enforcement of the three-item limit starting in December.

Statistics provided to CTV News Ottawa show 10,655 tonnes of garbage was sent to the landfill in September, compared to 10,645 tonnes in September 2023.

In August, households sent 11,017 tonnes of waste of the landfill, down 7.7 per cent from the 11,931 tonnes of waste produced in August 2023.

The City of Ottawa says so far in 2024, there has been a one per cent decrease in the amount of waste tossed into the garbage.

"Although there were some fluctuations in waste tonnages in the weeks leading up to the three-item policy implementation, an overall one per cent decrease was seen in curbside tonnages managed by the City between January and September 2024 compared to the same timeframe in 2023," Nichole Hoover-Bienasz, program manager of long-term planning with Solid Waste Services, said in a statement.

"Please note, it is difficult to assess trends through tonnages alone, as there are many factors that impact waste generation, including the state of the economy, population growth and the variations of materials disposed of as waste."

Statistics show Ottawa households have generated 94,490 tonnes of waste in the first nine months of the year, down from 95,460 tonnes in the January to September period of 2023.

There was an 11 per cent increase in the amount of waste sent to the landfill in July, with 11,532 tonnes of waste generated in 2024 and 10,365 tonnes in 2023.

The city says the amount of waste generated by households was down 9.2 per cent in June (9,997 tonnes in 2024 and 11,015 tonnes in 2023), and a 4.6 per cent drop in March (9,222 tonnes in 2024 and 9,668 tonnes in 2023).

Curbside waste generated by households in Ottawa

(Source: City of Ottawa)