Giving a second life to hardware materials, avoiding landfilling waste and promoting the reintegration of people in precarious situations… This is the triple challenge taken up by Réemploi+, a social economy enterprise in Lac-Saint-Jean.
On the shelves of Quincaillerie R+ in Alma, a pile of wood of various shapes and lengths is displayed at less than $2 a piece. In this lot, Pierre, a resident of the municipality, carefully chooses a few chipboard panels in order to carry out repairs in his chalet. “I only need small pieces, so it wasn’t worth buying a big 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet for big bucks,” he explains as he browses the aisles of Quincaillerie R+, which opened its doors in November 2021 on avenue du Pont Sud, in Alma.
The difference with the BMR and Home Hardware of this world? At Quincaillerie R+, all the materials narrowly escaped being landfilled, explains Katia Girard, the general manager of Réemploi+, the social economy company behind the project.
So, yes, the formats are not always standard and the stocks are unpredictable, because in constant rotation, but the prices are hard to beat. The materials are sold at 20% to 40% of the price of new materials, specifies Katia Girard, and the discounts are sometimes even greater. “We charge the lowest price possible, just to allow us to cover the cost of our activities,” she says.
Growing an idea for an entire region
However, the hardware store is only the submerged part of the Réemploi+ “iceberg”, a project imagined by Jean Girard five years ago, when he was working for the Coderr Group, a social economy company that , among other activities, recycles old mattresses, dismantles old refrigeration equipment and promotes job integration.
Réemploi+ is now at the head of a vast regional project to create value, with the recovery and reuse of materials from the seven ecocentres managed by the Residual Materials Board of Lac-Saint-Jean (RMR).
Involved since day one, the CMA and its general manager, Guy Ouellet, were immediately interested in the concept. “Reuse is part of the Régie’s DNA, because the cheapest waste is the one that we don’t produce,” he says. Our goal is to bury only the ultimate waste. As part of his mandate, Guy Ouellet had to involve all ecocentres and all municipalities in the Lac-Saint-Jean and Mashteuiatsh CMAs. What he did.
Objective: divert 5,000 tonnes of waste per year
“We receive nearly 185,000 visits each year to our ecocentres, an exceptional number of visitors for a population of 110,000 people,” notes Guy Ouellet. Currently, 84% of the 30,000 tons of materials sent to the Lac-Saint-Jean ecocentres are recycled or recovered.
Since the start of activities in November 2021, 45,000 items have been sold at Quincaillerie R+, and this is just the beginning. A second branch is opening these days in Dolbeau-Mistassini and a third is planned for the MRC du Domaine-du-Roy in 2023. Ultimately, the project aims to remove 5,000 tonnes of waste from the landfill per year. All this work will prevent the emission of 125 to 150 tonnes of CO equivalent2according to Guy Ouellet, who points out that a study is underway to more accurately assess the benefits of the project.
A reintegration project
For his part, Jean Girard wanted Réemploi+, in addition to promoting materials, to also support individuals, by promoting a return to work. “I’ve been working with ex-convicts, drug addicts, people with mental health issues, injured workers for over 30 years,” he says. These are clienteles that have a lot of potential, but who are too often excluded. So, in addition to reducing GHGs, we set up work platforms to facilitate the reintegration into employment of these people. In total, in the regional ecosystem created by the company, some 200 people will be supported to return to work.
In addition to job creation, Réemploi+ has succeeded in uniting three MRCs and several social economy enterprises in Lac-Saint-Jean. “It’s really a great sustainable development project for the whole region”, proudly summarizes Katia Girard.
A first version of this article was published on May 17, 2022 at onepointfive.ca
This special content was produced by the Special Publications team of the To have to, pertaining to marketing. The drafting of To have to did not take part.