Despite efforts in recent years to reduce the landfilling of waste in Quebec, the province is not making progress, concludes the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), after reviewing “The inventory and management of ultimate tailings” over the past year.
Quebec’s performance since 2015 “has declined for each of the objectives set out in the 2011-2015 Action Plan of the Quebec Residual Materials Management Policy (PQGMR),” note the BAPE commissioners. The only exception to this poor performance concerns the organic matter recycling rate, “which only increased by 2%, reaching 27% in 2018, far behind the 60% target for 2015”.
As for the quantity of materials sent to the landfill or incinerated in Quebec, it has experienced a “clear increase” in recent years, underline the commissioners of the BAPE. It stood in 2019 (the most recent data available) at 724 kilograms per capita (kg / hab) per Quebecer, the highest amount since 2011.
This quantity is also 38% higher than the target of 525 kg/capita set for 2023 in the government’s action plan. In this context, the BAPE estimates that it is simply not possible to reach the government’s objective of producing 525 kg / inhab of waste in 2025. As things stand, this objective would be reached in 2041. .
In an exceptional gesture for this advisory body, the BAPE had announced the moment of the publication of the report “The inventory and the management of ultimate residues”, in addition to holding a press briefing to explain the conclusions of the commission d ‘investigation. She had obtained her mandate in January 2021 from the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette.
Textiles and electronics
In addition to recyclable materials (paper, glass, plastic, etc.) and organic materials (which can be put in the “brown bin”), large quantities of textile materials end up in the dump or are never recovered. According to data from Recyc-Québec, for 63,000 tonnes of “clothing and other textile items” recovered in 2018 (the next report is scheduled for this year), 74,000 tonnes were sent to the trash.
For cell phones, Recyc-Québec’s 2018 report states that the recovery rate was barely 9%. In the case of laptops and tablets, the rate drops to just 3%, and to 1% for “portable audio-video” systems, such as iPods. Not to mention the environmental and social impacts of producing goods that have a short lifespan.
According to a survey conducted by Léger as part of the BAPE commission, 93% of Quebecers believe that waste management is a major social issue that must be tackled quickly. And even if 66% of Quebecers believe that they are doing enough to reduce the generation of waste as much as possible, the proportion of those who would personally be ready to make more efforts to reduce the amount of waste to be disposed of climbs to 88%. .
More details will follow.