Municipalities in the greater Montreal area should ban all plastic grocery bags as well as several other single-use items, in addition to taking inspiration from the metropolis and Mirabel by adopting a voluntary membership model for the Publisac .
This is what emerges, in short, from the draft Metropolitan Residual Materials Management Plan of the Montreal Metropolitan Community (CMM), which will be the subject of a public consultation next year, to then apply from 2024 to 2031. The main objective of this document is to go beyond recycling to focus on reducing waste at source.
“The challenges of managing residual materials are significant on the metropolitan territory, while landfills will reach their maximum capacity within ten years,” noted the mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, in a press release. issued Thursday. The one who also chairs the CMM thus believes that the region must take “strong and ambitious measures to promote reduction at source and reuse” with a view to achieving “zero landfill” of waste.
“It’s courageous”, recognizes the director general of the Quebec Common Front for ecological waste management, Karel Ménard, in an interview with the To have to. However, “the status quo does not hold” in a context of accelerating climate change, he recalls. “We have to move on, think differently. »
Say goodbye to single-use plastic
The plan thus proposes that all 82 municipalities in the region ban the distribution of shopping bags of any thickness by December 31, 2024. Currently, 13 municipalities in the region have banned the distribution of all bags single-use plastic. This is particularly the case in Montreal since the end of September, following a regulation adopted last year.
Asked about the environmental impact of such a measure, Karel Ménard sees it mainly as a “symbolic” gesture, but which can play an important role in raising awareness. “It means that we can bring a conversation with consumers about their consumption habits and with producers in their mode of production” in order to encourage them to reduce their ecological footprint, analyzes the expert.
The CMM also recommends that the 82 municipalities prohibit the distribution of other single-use items on their territory, which Montreal plans to do through another regulation which is to come into force on 1er March 2023. This will ban eight single-use plastic items, including straws, plates, glasses and utensils.
However, this regulation will include exceptions. Thus, grocery stores will be able, for example, to continue to offer straws and plastic cups on their shelves. Since the City cannot control the distribution of food, it will also not be able to prevent fruits and vegetables from arriving in the metropolis in plastic packaging.
Voluntary membership
Finally, the CMM recommends that the municipalities in the region follow in the footsteps of Mirabel and Montreal by adopting a distribution model for printed advertising – like the Publisac – based on the model of voluntary membership. “A model by-law intended for municipalities will be developed in order to curb the systematic distribution of printed matter and thus limit the waste of resources and the quantity of materials sent to the landfill,” indicates the plan of the CMM. An idea welcomed by Mr. Ménard.
In Montreal as in Mirabel, the revision of the Publisac distribution model has led to an outcry from certain companies, in particular Transcontinental. Karel Ménard has no doubt that the proposals included in this CMM plan will cause a stir, if they are implemented.
“If we want to change people’s habits or companies’ ways of doing things, the lobbies will be there,” says the expert, who therefore believes that this plan will reap “a lot of resistance” in the coming years.
The CMM’s plan sets itself the target of reducing by 10% the quantity of residual materials generated by the municipalities of the greater Montreal region.