Éco Entreprises Québec reaches out to the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal

Modernizing the curbside recycling compensation plan will be achieved through cooperation between companies and municipalities

As part of the public consultation process regarding the project to modify the 2015-2020 Residual Materials Management Plan (Plan métropolitain de gestion des matières résiduelles 2015-2020 or PMGMR), Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) intends to cooperate with municipalities from the Communauté métropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) in order to find solutions to modernize the curbside recycling compensation plan.

In the current context, the status quo is not an option, and ÉEQ welcomes the CMM’s willingness to consider the impacts of the recycling crisis and the opportunities brought on by implementing a true circular economy as part of its review of the RMMP (PMGMR).

 

The Québec compensation plan must be modernized, namely, by broadening the role of companies in the management of recyclable materials, in collaboration with municipalities, government bodies and sorting centres.

 

– Mathieu Guillemette, Senior Director of Services to Municipalities

In the Memorandum (in French only) submitted today to the CMM’s Commission de l’environnement, ÉEQ states several positions, including:

  • ÉEQ disagrees with the view expressed by the CMM that companies pay for the disposal stream. In Québec, companies already finance 100% of curbside recycling. Changing this fundamental notion would send a very bad, even counterproductive, signal.
  • ÉEQ agrees with the CMM’s goal to promote and support eco-design for containers, packaging and printed matter.
  • With its Innovative Glass Works Plan, ÉEQ puts forward a proven solution to recover 100% of glass containers, not just a portion of them. We must support local markets, including remelting glass into new bottles and investing in modernizing sorting centres. ÉEQ is not in favour of broadening the consignment system, as this would further undermine the curbside recycling system.
  • The government must recognize the recycling industry as a wealth-generating economic sector, whose modernization can only be achieved through the development of a true business model that is based on innovation and the circular economy. We must leave behind the outdated model of the past century, and ÉEQ wishes to play an active role in this transformation.

Read the memorandum (in French only)

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