The Saint-Michel recyclable materials sorting center in Montreal, which has found itself at the center of various disputes and controversies in recent years, claims to have made the necessary investments to comply with industry standards.
The Ricova company, which operates the sorting center in Saint-Michel, one of the largest in Quebec, maintains that the acquisition of six optical sorters allows it to reduce the rate of contamination of bales of paper and plastic from “significantly”, dropping from 35% to 2%.
A bundle of paper becomes contaminated, for example, when materials such as metal or even plastic bags end up there, which complicates the recycling of the material.
Ricova sells, abroad or in Quebec, the residual materials that it sorts in its center. But if the material is not well sorted and the bales are contaminated, it becomes very difficult to recycle cardboard boxes, yogurt pots or even juice bottles.
“In August 2020, when we resumed activities here at the Saint-Michel sorting center, there were more than 1,000 bales piled up outside, because they were too contaminated and there was no market for them. these bundles, ”said Nicolas Fortier-Labonté, director of sorting centers at Ricova, Thursday.
But thanks to the modernization of its equipment, Ricova could further recycle the material collected.
“It is important to recycle […] everything we put in our recycling, it really goes to recycling, it’s important to do it because every gesture counts”, made a point of mentioning the director of communications of Ricova, Laurence Tôth, during a press briefing at the sorting centre.
No control over the end of life of collected materials
A report from Radio-Canada’s Enquête program in February 2022 claimed that the Saint-Michel sorting center was sending containers of bales of recycled paper contaminated with plastic to India, via an intermediary in Italy.
These residual materials, rather than being recycled, ended up being used as fuel in polluting factories such as cement plants, according to the Radio-Canada report entitled “Les sales secrets ducycling”.
Asked whether the modernization of the sorting center will prevent such a situation from happening again, Laurence Tôth replied that “Ricova does not sell to cement companies”, however, the company “has neither the resources nor control and nor the power to control what our buyers do with recyclables”.
This is not the only controversy that has shaken the manager of the Saint-Michel sorting center in recent months.
In February 2022, the executive council of the City of Montreal placed the Ricova company and its administrators “on the city’s blacklist” following the recommendations of the Office of Inspector General (OIG).
The Office of Inspector General’s investigation claimed that “the manager of Services Ricova and other sister entities are committing a fraudulent maneuver by systematically deducting the amount of $20 per ton upstream from the selling price declared by Services Ricova for the sharing of revenues or losses from sales, thus depriving the City of Montreal of considerable sums”.
Ricova refuses and disputes the conclusions of the OIG investigation. The company has also threatened the City of Montreal with legal action if it tries to terminate its municipal contracts.
Ricova’s contract as operator of the Saint-Michel sorting center will end in 2024.
Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ), tasked by the Government of Québec with modernizing curbside recycling, recently launched a call for tenders for the construction and operation of a new sorting center serving the eastern part of the island of Montreal.
Could upgrading equipment and reducing contamination of paper and plastic bales help Ricova win the tender?
“It is up to Éco Entreprises Québec to determine whether or not, from September 30, 2024, we will be called upon to continue our contract, but until then we will work with the City of Montréal and Éco Entreprises Québec to continue the sorting of materials as we have always done,” replied Laurence Tôth.
Ricova operates two centers specializing in the sorting and recovery of recyclable materials in Quebec.