Montreal residents lagging behind in recycling

A report has disclosed that the residents of Montreal are lagging behind in recycling though their present rate of recycling is better than that of 2002.

Households and business organisations throughout the island recycled an average of thirty seven per cent of the waste generated in 2006. Two years before it was thirty four per cent while it was slightly over seventeen per cent four years before 2006.

However the thirty seven per cent rate of recycling is way lower than the target set by the provincial government for all municipalities in Quebec. The target which was supposed to be achieved this year was set at sixty per cent.

Of all the communities on the island only Senneville met the target and actually surpassed it by twenty four percentage points.

The report also reveals that the quantities of waste generated throughout the island rose by seven per cent between 2002 and 2006. The human population rose by 2.3 per cent between 2002 and 2006.

779,516 tonnes of waste from the island ended up at the Lachenaie landfill in 2006 and this translated to seventy eight per cent of all the waste generated on the island. The landfill site is expected to fill up by August and the province has been asked to allow for its expansion.

However there is optimism that a few island communities will achieve the province’s target for recycling. In its efforts to launch the city’s first composting waste collection scheme the city invited interested parties to tender for the collection of household waste.