Société VIA will take over the management of the Lachine recycling sorting center in mid-October and has already begun to work on equipment to improve its performance, with the aim of better sorting the green bins of Montrealers.
Posted at 5:58 p.m.
On October 17, the non-profit organization will take over from Ricova, whose contract was terminated by the City of Montreal a few weeks ago.
The transition will therefore take place four weeks before the November 14 deadline set by the municipal administration. “This is good news,” said Marie-Andrée Mauger, environment manager on the city’s executive committee.
The city council of Montreal leaned Tuesday on the management of recycling, during a special meeting.
“We are currently in a transition period, to ensure that [la] Société VIA can operate properly in the shortest possible time. They met with all the employees to ensure continuity in operations, they looked with the equipment manufacturer to refurbish the equipment, and there has already been work to improve the equipment,” explained Arnaud Budka, director of management of residual materials at the City, before elected municipal officials.
Mr. Budka recalled the problems encountered at the Lachine sorting center, operated by Ricova.
The company is unable to dispose of a large quantity of bales of recovered paper, because they contain too much plastic material which contaminates them. These bales accumulate inside and outside Ricova facilities, causing them to deteriorate, posing a fire hazard and endangering worker safety.
This is what prompted the City of Montreal to terminate its contract with Ricova a few weeks ago. The company was also accused by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) last spring of depriving the city of significant revenues by hiding them in its corporate structure. Ricova turned to the courts to challenge the OIG report.
More staff
By taking responsibility for the sorting centre, Société VIA will have to undo the bales of paper accumulated by Ricova to remove the plastic materials so that they can find takers on the market.
Société VIA is an employment integration organization for people with disabilities that already operates four sorting centers in the province, including those in Quebec City and Saguenay.
How will it be able to better sort the recovered materials? Arnaud Budka explained that the organization will do more manual sorting, since it will be able to count on a greater number of employees, given its reintegration mission.
He also pointed out that the ban on plastic bags in Montreal, which came into effect last week, as well as the restrictions that will be imposed on the distribution of the Publisac in 2023 will make it possible to reduce contaminants at the source.