MRC des Collines waste management meeting - part I
No more garbage!
Jamie Laidlaw
Each week, we leave garbage bags at the end of our driveways and they magically disappear. We take our recycling to the nearest drop-off site. In spring, a team of men spirit away our unwanted stoves, sofas, and TVs from the roadside. In the fall, we take hazardous items such as paints, batteries, old oil and other hazardous waste to a local pickup point. Pontiac produces 20,000 tons of garbage per year, 3,355 tons (17% of total) of which is recovered through recycling and returns. The remaining 83% ends up in the landfill. We think we are doing well. We can do better.

The MRC des Collines has a vision, a plan, and the people to transform our garbage into a valuable resource, while preserving the environment, and reducing costs. Waste management is expensive. It is no longer environmentally correct, politically sound or economical to send our garbage to the nearest pit in the ground without implementing a reduce, reuse, recycle policy. We need to understand our new responsibilities.

More than 50 residents of the municipality of Pontiac attended the public information and consultation meeting held in Luskville on February 5, 2004, by the MRC’s Residual Materials Management (RMM) group. The RMM group is a team of experts, including Nicole Desroches of CREDDO, Dominique Leger, an environmental scientist, and Michel Bélanger of the planning department. Warden Marc Carrière and other MRC mayors including Pontiac’s Bruce Campbell were present. Pontiac councillors were in the audience.

Residual materials
RMM is the scientific approach to handling, transforming and disposing of the residential, institutional, commercial and industrial materials, that many people call garbage. We must now think of these materials as residual materials - discrete streams of materials that can be separated, distributed to different points, and put to good use. The most common streams include recyclables such as paper, cardboard, various plastics, cans, textiles. Hazardous materials include tires, batteries, car parts, used oil. Organic materials include kitchen and garden waste. Septic tank sludge and grey water are also waste. Proper management of these materials will save money without making problems for future generations.

Over the next few years everyone in our municipality will participate. Children and adults, local businesses, schools, and entrepreneurs will influence our attitudes and behaviour.

Recycling
This fall, door-to-door pickup of recyclable materials will start. The existing drop-off sites will close. Each household will have a large blue wheelie-bin to make it easy to collect cardboard, paper, metal and plastics, and wheel it to the roadside for pickup every two weeks.

Compost
The next challenge is composting. Although many of us already compost organic wastes at home, starting in 2007 the rest of us will be able to put this material in an aerated brown wheelie-bin. There will be a weekly pickup of compostables except in the winter months. This material will then be mixed with wood chips at a mechanized composting site. Temperatures in these piles of rich organic material reach 70°C, ensuring that all bacteria are killed; even bones and meat will decompose. Within months this organic “black gold” will be available to keen gardeners throughout the region. Our garbage bags should be smaller and may even disappear.

Septic tanks
Inspecting and emptying septic tanks is another important part of residual management practice. Chelsea already has a successful program. A systematic inspection and pumpout program ensures safe septic systems and reduces costs. A treatment centre will be constructed in the region to handle the sludge. After treatment the septic sludge can be composted and then used as fertilizer, for example in tree plantations.

Ecocentres replace “the dump”
The budget for residual materials management over the next four years will also include the construction of at least three Ecocentres. We will be able to deposit large bulky items, used construction materials, as well as hazardous waste materials at our nearest Ecocentre. Here is a year-round solution for keeping your garage and yard clean. Each centre will sort and redistribute the materials.

The commitment of the MRC mayors, and the keen focus of the RMM team to protect our health, preserve our environment, and conserve natural resources was clearly demonstrated at this meeting. The comments and questions at the public meeting suggested that the public supports these measures. Further consultations will take place with the City of Gatineau and other MRCs to share strategic plans, resources and expertise.

For more info see the MRC’s website. The plan has been posted there in English. www.mrcdescollines.com/

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