The new chair of the city's environment committee is calling Ottawa's 20-year green bin contract with Orgaworld an "abysmal disgrace."

The contract commits the city to paying for 80,000 tonnes of organic waste per year. But the city fell short of that goal in 2010, sending only 53,000 tonnes of waste to the plant. Taxpayers will now have to foot a $2.5-million bill to make up for the shortfall.

"It's just another abysmal disgrace. We didn't have a ramping up period. Why didn't we start with small amounts and then ramp it up as we went along?" McRae told the Ottawa Sun on Wednesday.

"I don't believe it was smart, but now we're stuck with it. We need to deal with the contract and ... try to make it better."

McRae told the Sun the contract doesn't make sense, and she has asked the city's auditor general to further examine the deal. McRae declined an interview with CTV Ottawa on Thursday.

However, newly-elected Coun. Steve Blais echoed her concerns.

"I think locking in for 20 years was a mistake, guaranteeing tonnage was a mistake," Blais said.

The former head of the city's planning and environment committee, though, says the majority of the previous council voted in favour of the deal, knowing full-well the city wouldn't meet composting targets for the first year.

"It's a little ingenious to come back now and say the sky is falling because we all knew what we were getting into," Coun. Peter Hume told CTV Ottawa.

Now, residents are also questioning the green bin program and the 20-year contract.

At the Navin household, the green bin sits buried in the snow. It's unused and unwanted.

"I think the city has no business entering into a contract they know they can't fulfill and they signed it anyway," said Ottawa resident Sharon Navin.

However, the company says tonnage wouldn't be a problem if the city agreed to add diapers and plastic to the mix.

"A lot of other municipalities accept plastic bags and diapers as well," said Dale Harley, of Orgaworld.

The company was before a provincial tribunal in May to lay out its case to get permission to process plastic waste.

The city is now considering moving to bi-weekly garbage pick-up to encourage green bin and recycling use. Under the proposal, green bin waste would be picked up every week in urban neighbourhoods; garbage would only be collected once every two weeks.

With a report from CTV Ottawa's Joanne Schnurr