We have read and heard for a few days that only 9 or 10% of plastic products are recycled. For what ?
Roland Archambault
Our societies are crumbling under plastic.
The subject was back in the news recently, as international negotiations were relaunched to lead to a global treaty to fight plastic pollution before the end of next year.
It’s a long shot, because only about 10% of the plastic we use actually manages to be recycled. This is the case in Canada, but also elsewhere in the world, according to studies carried out in recent years.
Experts on the subject explain that this dismal failure is the result of a combination of factors.
Is it because too many citizens throw this recyclable material in the trash?
Yes, and even sometimes out of spite.
First of all, it should be noted that not all Quebecers participate in curbside recycling… but almost.
Éco Entreprises Québec indicates that 99% of the Quebec population is now served by curbside recycling. And 96% of Quebecers – recently questioned in a survey – said they would participate.
On the other hand, far too much plastic still ends up in landfills because it was not deposited in the selective collection in order to be recovered, indicates Recyc-Québec.
No less than 158,000 tonnes of plastic from Quebec homes suffered this fate in 2021. This is in addition to the 207,000 tonnes generated by industries, businesses and institutions, as well as 13,000 tonnes from the construction sector. and renovation.
It’s colossal.
That said, even if everyone in Quebec – and the industry – religiously put all their plastic waste in the recycling bin, that wouldn’t be enough to solve the problem either.
Figures from Recyc-Québec indicate that in 2021, of the 90,000 tonnes of plastic recovered during selective collection, only 52,000 tonnes were “sent for recycling” to be transformed.
The “performance” of the system “will be influenced by what is marketed, by the sorting of citizens and businesses, but also by the equipment in the sorting centers,” says Sophie Langlois-Blouin, vice-president, performance of operations, of Recyc-Québec.
“Part of the flow of plastics does not lend itself well to recycling,” adds Marc Olivier, professor-researcher at the Center for Technology Transfer in Industrial Ecology.
“Let’s just think about the furniture. You may be sitting on a chair upholstered in polyurethane foam. It is a plastic material and it cannot be recycled. Nobody wants to do it because it wouldn’t bring in enough, and we don’t have a legislative constraint that forces us to do it, ”he specifies.
The pathetic state of our fight against plastic has recently prompted the Government of Quebec to put forward initiatives with the aim of changing the situation.
For example, a modernization of the selective collection system began last year with the entry into force in July 2022 of the regulation on the extended responsibility of producers (with regard to the design and recycling of their products).
It will be necessary to wait before being able to judge the effectiveness of such an initiative. But no need to wait to make our own resolutions and change our individual plastic consumption.
“It’s clear that we consume a lot of material, points out Sophie Langlois-Blouin. The earlier we can reduce our consumption of certain single-use products – plastic or other materials – the better. And when that’s not possible, if we choose one that can be put in our bin, we minimize the impact. »