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The approval of a new, privately operated landfill and recycling centre in Ottawa’s east end has created predictable, and not invalid, concerns from neighbors, who worry about truck traffic and smell.

The thing is, the new landfill is at the intersection of Highway 417 and Boundary Road. There isn’t a whole lot else around there and the city needs sites for the garbage produced by its businesses and institutions. One could argue that what’s happening in the east end makes sense.

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It’s the west end where we have a problem that no one is talking about.

People driving on the 417 to Kanata or Stittsville can’t miss two distinctive landmarks. There is the Canadian Tire Centre and on the other side of the road, and just a little farther out, is a massive landfill site.

That might seem incongruous and it’s getting weirder by the month. One wouldn’t have thought a landfill would be an ideal neighbour, but that isn’t stopping development from springing up around the site. The Tanger Outlet Mall and the giant Cabela’s sporting goods store have a splendid view of what locals call Carp Mountain. A new townhouse development is also going up in the area. The landfill will be its predominant landmark.