Gatineau goes dumpster diving to expose composting need

The City of Gatineauwent dumpster diving on Friday, hoping to show residents just how much compostableand recyclable materialends up in the city's landfill.

Serge Riopelle, foreman of the city's garbage sorting facility, picked three garbage bags at random, opening them up to reveal plenty of paper products and plastic bottles.

"This is all recycling or almost,"Riopellesaidin French, sorting through the bag. "This was all going out to the dump."

"That's just two bags among all the bags we pick up in a week, so it all adds up."

New composting rules are set to take effect across Gatineau on July 15, with the city urging its residents to divert compostableand recyclablematerials from the city dump.

EveryGatineauhomeowner has had a compost bin since 2010, but the city is concerned that only about 50 per cent of residents are actually composting.

Gatineau goes dumpster diving

6 years ago

Duration 0:54

City workers open random garbage bags to show how much recyclable and compostable material ends up at the dump.

MaudeMarquise-Bissonnette, councillor for the Plateau district and chair of the city's environment commission, saidthe city is eager to see that number go up.

"We want to take any occasion that we can to informpeople on what iscompostable, what is recyclable, what really goes in the garbage, sosensibilizationis really the key here," she said.

"The idea is to reduce their capacity to put things in the garbage so they have to compost."

No fines for rule-breakers

City council approved the new rules in May, making guidelines adopted in2016 mandatory.

People living in apartment and condo buildings will now also be expected to compost, with bins to be delivered to them by July 15.

This is the latest step in the city's planstoreduce the amount of waste that ends up inits dump by 45 per cent of its 2016 volume by 2020, in response to a provincial law that requires all municipalitiesto develop a waste management plan.

Despite the challenges the city has had so far to get people to compost, Marquis-Bissonette said Gatineau won't impose fines on residents who don't follow the new rules.

Instead, the city's environmental patrol workers will do spot checks across the city, leaving notices to customers who leave compostable or recyclable materials in their waste bins.

120-litre garbage limit

Gatineau has also placed a limit on how much garbage residents will be able to throw to the curb,capping it at 120 litres every two weeks.

That rule will only come into effect on July 15, 2019, Marquis-Bissonnette said, as the city has not yet awarded a contract for the new 120-litre bins.

Although the city expects to make exceptions for daycares and large families, other residents who exceed the 120-litre limit will have to buy separate bags for their garbage.