With focus on recycling, trash will be collected every two weeks starting in April
Of all the issues over which Laval city councillors Yannick Langlois, Nicolas Borne and Ray Khalil took questions last week from a room full of west-end Laval residents, probably none resonated with more emotion than the dilemma the City of Laval is currently facing over changes in its garbage collection.
The city’s decision to move garbage removal to just one day every two weeks – instead of once a week as it was for decades – has hit a nerve in many of Laval’s densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Although it may offer little to some in the way of consolation, the fact is that many towns and cities in the Montreal region – and indeed all over the province – are currently dealing with the same problem: a deadline to scale back garbage disposal imposed by the Quebec government.
Recycling prioritized
The province wants municipalities to drastically cut down on the mixed waste gathered during the garbage collection – which goes straight into landfill – while strongly encouraging municipalities to concentrate on the recycling of waste matter.
Langlois, who represents the district of L’Orée-des-Bois, often deals with city council dossiers involving financial and urban planning. Khalil, the longtime city councillor for Sainte-Dorothée, was responsible at one time for public works, although he’s been overseeing the tricky issue of waste management lately. And Borne, who’s been the city councillor for Laval-Les-Îles since 2013, deals frequently with issues involving public administration.
Every two weeks as of April
In Laval, household waste collection has generally taken place once or twice a week, depending on the area. However, starting on April 1, this frequency will change to every two weeks to encourage waste reduction. Bins must be placed at the curb after 7:00 p.m. the evening before or before 7:00 a.m. on the day of collection.
While explaining the looming adjustment last week at the Centre communautaire Accès in Laval-Ouest to around 60 residents, Khalil said the city had no real choice but to comply with the provincial government’s order, although some alternatives are available.
For instance, the drastic reduction in the amount of waste materials that normally would be going into the garbage stream will be raising the quantities of waste going henceforth into recycling. As a result, the capacity of household recycling bins may not be up to the looming demand.
Extra recycling bins available
However, according to Khalil, residents will be able to request additional recycling bins. “You shouldn’t have any problems getting them,” he assured them.
He said that if they run into any resistance from city employees, they should tell the employee to contact their respective city councillor. “They’re not supposed to say no for a recycling bin,” he said.
According to the Sainte-Dorothée councillor, an analysis revealed that up to 82 per cent of waste that had been going into landfill until recently didn’t belong there because it could be recycled.
The waste recycling program in Laval and other Quebec cities now includes separate streams for several types of recyclable materials, including moist kitchen waste and dry recyclable solids.
Savings seen for city
While some Laval residents (especially older ones) may find the new waste management system inconvenient, Langlois maintained that the city will be saving more than $3 million annually from the reduction of the garbage collection service.
Still, as at least one resident at the meeting with objections pointed out, a few million dollars isn’t much in an annual City of Laval budget that now stands at $1.293 billion annually.
“Rimouski, Chicoutimi – do you want me to rattle off the cities that are in the midst of voting to return to the old system,” said the resident, who also pointed out some of the problems – such as the proliferation of mice and rats – that were encountered in some cities where garbage collection was scaled back.
Khalil pointed out that the City of Laval is among the remaining municipalities in Quebec that have yet to comply with the provincial requirement. “We haven’t been leading the parade in this dossier – we’re among the last,” he said.
It may be worth noting that in Montreal, the City of Westmount is among the municpalities that have been toying with the idea of restoring weekly garbage collection because of a chorus of complaints from some of their residents.
