Oh boy! Not only is it garbage day on my street, it is garbage reduction week all across Quebec from October 19-26th! Lets celebrate with some exciting trash statistics:
- In 2006 (the most recent available data), the average Montrealer produced about half a tonne – or to be precise 541 kg – of waste.
- 78% of this ended up in off-island dumps – with the greatest amount going to the Lachenaie landfill. The other 22% was diverted to recycling plants, composting plants, or eco-centres.
- In 2006, 37% of recyclable materials actually made it to recycling facilities (up from 33% in 2002). According to recyc-Quebec, Montreal should reach the province-wide objective of 60% this year.
- Only 7% of organic wastes were composted. This figure includes an estimate of household composting, as well as municipal centres. I think the bulk of this is made up of Christmas trees, we well as some leaves and grass cuttings.
- 41% of household hazardous wastes (batteries, paints, motor oil, and other nasty stuff like that) was disposed of in the city’s Eco-centres (up from 29% in 2002).
- Clunky stuff like old furniture, appliances, and computers can be brought to eco-centres or picked up by the city. About 35% were collected and recycled in some way (up from 20% in 2002).
A new waste reduction plan released last month outlines how the city will reach targets for the next 4 years. We are only now beginning to strive towards the Province-wide target of composting 60% of organic waste. This fall, all 19 boroughs put garden-waste composting in place. Three areas – Côte-Saint-Luc, Laval, Plateau-Mont-Royal – are experimenting with collecting kitchen compostables.
Toronto is ahead of Montreal in the garbage department, offering household compost pickup. And forget about squabbling over whether sorting trash should be enforced by law: The Torontonians I know quickly jumped on the trash sorting bandwagon when the garbage truck started to pass by only very second week – if only to prevent their homes from being overwhelmed by piles of recyclables and the stench of rotting kitchen scraps.
Photo: dumptsers behind ste-catherine street buildings
4 comments
I have just moved to North America after spending my life in Australasia and Europe. I think Montréal’s recycling system is already good – trash reduction probably lies with making it more difficult to throw things out.
My neighbour didn’t understand what I meant when I asked him how to throw rubbish away in our building, and I didn’t understand him when he said he just throws it in the ruelle.
In all cities I have lived in, general garbage must be disposed of in expensive, surtaxed bags or in special limited-sized bins.
When I was studying environmental science at McGill, a prof gave us a case study of one European city (i don’t remember where) where, to avoid paying for extra garbage disposal – people began unpacking thier products in the store and leaving extra packaging behind. For instance, they might open a box of cereal after paying for it and only take home the wax bag inside.
The commerces were forced to pay for the extra disposal and quickly began complaining to manufacturers, saying that they would only carry products with reduced packaging.
I always thought this was such an excellent idea. Do you, William, or anybody else know more precisely where this happened and how it went down?
Alanah,
great article and great comment.
i am not sure what european city this case study went down, but it sounds like a rational progression towards garbage reduction.
garbage collection has increased in cost in toronto, yet people aren’t putting this kind of pressure on grocery chains > suppliers.
Hey, do NOT bring your computer stuff to the Ecocentre Rosemont. I did today and it’s a complete waste of time. I rented a car and brought some old computer equipment. They directed to me to an area that was blocked off by a line of orange cones. So I opened the car and began to unload my stuff there. A guy stuck his head out of a trailer and shouted at me to unload further down. So I put it back in the car, drove to where a line of orange “danger-keep out” tape was stretched across the lane and started to unload there. The guy stuck his head out again and shouted at me to crawl under the tape and unload behind some dumpster. I said I was unwilling to, as I had a bad back and the tape said “keep out.” He said it was there because of the danger of people tossing off heavy waste from the elevated section, above. It was dangerous but he wanted ME to enter: he would not. I said I wouldn’t. Finally, he tossed the printer and keyboard down into the dangerous area — and hurled a perfectly good 17 inch monitor into the trash dumpster and walked off.
Just leave your computer stuff on the street. If someone wants it, they”ll take it. I learned my lesson and will never waste my time or money trying to haul stuff to this place.