Collecting residual materials and transporting them are expensive for Montrealers. Nearly 200 million are allocated each year to this vast operation. This represents 3.5% of the city’s budget.
There are the costs, but there is also the impact on the environment. The numerous vehicles which circulate in the streets of the city (the garbage removal activities represent 7.5 million kilometers) before finishing their race in the landfill centers which, once they have reached their maximum capacity, must be multiplied.
We have to review our way of managing the waste we produce.
This revolution must include reducing waste collections, a shift taken by several Quebec municipalities, but which Montreal is slow to take for various reasons.
In several cities of the province (Saguenay, Lévis, Saint-Lambert, Pointe-Claire, Longueuil, Shawinigan, etc.), the principle of collections every two weeks has become a standard, a habit.
But in Montreal, we are dragging our feet. A pilot project was to take place in two districts of Verdun this fall, but it was postponed.
You will tell me that the reality of the metropolis, rich in triplexes and quintuplexes, complicates things (the 2 million people of the Montreal agglomeration live in a total of 954,683 dwellings in 304,317 buildings – 63% of dwellings constitute buildings of 8 dwellings or less, a unique fact in North America).
By reviewing the frequency of waste collection and transport, the metropolis would save tens of millions of dollars.
But above all, it would add a solid link to the vast ecological transition project that it has initiated.
The mayors of municipalities that have adopted this approach note that the fewer collections there are, the more people are inclined to compost and recycle – note that more than 50% of the residual materials that we find in waste are organic materials.
This is exactly what we observed in the borough of Saint-Laurent where, from 2004, we adopted a major environmental plan. This culminated in 2016 with a collection of household waste every two weeks for buildings with eight units or less.
Why proceed with a pilot project when we can benefit from the experience of Saint-Laurent? Alan DeSousa, mayor of the borough, is proud to talk about his experience, which began with the distribution of free household garbage bins.
“Of course there was a period of adjustment, he told me. There is nothing more personal than household waste. But there was support and the citizens ended up getting on board. ”
Result: between 2005 and 2020, the Borough of Saint-Laurent went from 32,000 tonnes of household waste to 23,000.
“And what’s great is that this decrease has coincided with the incredible demographic boom we’ve seen in recent years,” adds DeSousa.
In this context, the borough now wishes to offer organic waste collection to buildings with nine or more dwellings in order to carry out a bimonthly household waste collection.
Of course, these changes are not always made with joy and harmony. In cities that have reduced their collections, citizens express their dissatisfaction, particularly during the summer season when the hot weather promotes foul odors and the proliferation of flies or worms.
For Montreal to achieve this objective, therefore, there must be real will, a deep desire to change its habits. It is also necessary to reorganize your daily life.
If this way leads more citizens to want to circumvent the rules, like this woman I saw the other day putting her little bag of household garbage in a municipal garbage can (which has the effect of filling it in two stages, three movements), we are hardly further advanced.
What will the Plante administration, proud of a second term, do to move this file forward, which is directly linked to its master plan? Montreal, zero waste goal presented in 2019?
Talking about waste management is arguably the least sexy thing there is. But yet, it is essential to address this subject, because it has a major impact on the measures we adopt in parts to ensure the survival of our planet.
According to various surveys, Montrealers are very satisfied with waste management in Montreal. Will we take the risk of disappointing them? Will we dare to change their good old habits and reduce the famous garbage day?
It seems essential to me.