This text is taken from the Courrier de la Planète of November 29, 2022. To subscribe, click here.
A reader, Max Rougeau, wonders if the collection of food residues carried out with diesel trucks does not generate more pollution than that spared by composting. In other words, does composting represent a real environmental gain?
Indeed, one can wonder about the environmental footprint of the collection of organic materials, especially since at present, the quantities collected are still limited.
A report recently published by the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM) indicated that only 29% of food waste was recycled and composted for the residential sector of the 82 municipalities in the region. A recovery rate far from the 70% target for 2030 set by Quebec.
But let’s take a closer look at the situation in Montreal. Throughout the territory, trucks criss-cross the streets to collect the contents of the brown bins. Since Montreal does not yet have its own composting plants, the materials are transported by truck to the EBI facilities in Saint-Thomas, 60 kilometers from Montreal, and in Lachute, 81 kilometers away. The transport of these materials therefore results in significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
When Montreal will have its first composting plant in Saint-Laurent and its biomethanation plant in Montreal East, the distances to be covered will be much shorter. But that day has not yet arrived because these two factories are experiencing delays, construction sites having been stopped for several months this summer following a commercial dispute between Veolia (formerly Suez) and its subcontractors.
In the case of composting, however, one thing should be pointed out: if they end up in landfill sites with other waste, organic matter, as it decomposes, emits large quantities of methane, a gas of 85 to 95 % more harmful than carbon dioxide (CO2), recalls Karel Ménard, director general of the Quebec Common Front for ecological waste management.
Recyc-Québec also points out that in Quebec, 7.8% of greenhouse gases attributable to waste “are mainly caused by the landfilling of organic matter”.
Karel Ménard acknowledges that there is no environmental assessment of organic matter collection activities. But according to him, we must also question what we consume and what we put in the brown bin. For example, not being produced in Quebec, a banana — the peel of which will end up in the compost bin — will have a significant energy footprint. The same goes for meat, the production of which creates a significant amount of greenhouse gases. “We must not limit ourselves to what is produced downstream, because if we want to be complete in our analysis, we must take into account our consumption habits,” he says.
For its part, Recyc-Québec points out that, in many municipalities, the addition of an organic matter collection can result in the elimination of a waste collection. In Quebec, the City has even integrated the collection of food scraps with that of garbage.
To date, nearly 690 Quebec municipalities have implemented the collection of organic materials. By 2025, all municipalities will have to convert to it, according to the Organic Matter Recovery Strategy, which also aims to recycle or recover 70% of organic matter by 2030.
The issue of methane from organic matter in landfills is a problem, says Eve Lortie-Fournier, executive director of the Regroupement des écoquartiers. “It is indeed preferable for trucks to reduce their trips, but in the current situation, the best choice is to participate in the collection of food waste or to make your own compost in your yard or with a vermicomposter,” she says.
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