Diving into Pontiac’s garbage situation
Diving into Pontiac’s garbage situation
With the MRC’s proposed waste incineration project in the political spotlight at the moment, there have been many questions from the public regarding efforts to reduce the overall waste tonnages that the region produces. CHIP 101.9 set out to quantify the amount of household waste the Pontiac is sending to landfill, and look at the initial efforts some municipalities have made or are planning to make to reduce their output.
Current garbage contract up in August, tenders sought
While the overall tonnages for the MRC are on a downward trend following a spike during the pandemic years, the cost per ton of waste is expected to increase in the future.
The MRC entered into an agreement with McGrimmon Cartage in 2019 to receive and transport all the MRC’s household waste for up to five years, ending on August 18, 2024. In the first year of the contract, the price was $258.48/ton and it increased annually to $292.04/ton for the final year. At the MRC meeting on April 17, the council approved issuing a call for tenders for the contract (deadline June 11), with the stated goal of awarding the new contract at their June 19 public meeting.
MRC environmental coordinator Kari Richardson said that some of the variation in tonnages year-to-year can be attributed to things outside the control of municipal officials, such as the pandemic keeping more people at home, or the flooding of 2019 and 2021 contributing to more waste in waterfront communities like Mansfield-et-Pontefract or L’Isle-aux-Allumettes. A full breakdown of garbage tonnages by municipality from 2019 to 2023 is available at the end of the article.
Changes vary by municipality
Rick Bradshaw is a councillor in Sheenboro and a member of the MRC’s waste management committee. Since 2020, the municipality (which has a year-round population of 120, with around 600 seasonal residents) has seen a significant drop in tonnages sent to landfill, something that Bradshaw attributed partly to their public awareness efforts, as well as the introduction of mandating residents use clear garbage bags. He said they had considered a few options, such as limiting bags per residence or introducing bag tags, but in the end they went with what they thought was the simplest solution.
Richard Armitage, a councillor in Shawville who also sits on the waste management committee, said that garbage costs the municipality (which has a population of around 1,500 people) roughly $20,000 per month. He added that they had considered clear bags, but there were some concerns raised about privacy. Unlike Sheenboro where the bags would only be shown to an attendant a the transfer station, Shawville has door-to-door pickup and bags are often left out at the curb overnight. He said that the coming implementation of Quebec’s new recycling collection system (which comes into force January 2025) would mean more money for the municipality to put towards compost collection or diversion.
Armitage added that this year they’ve enacted stricter controls over the bin at their transfer station, as people from outside the municipality could previously dump their waste in Shawville’s receptacle.
Both Armitage and Bradshaw agreed that waste solutions would vary significantly depending on a municipality’s size and population density, however they were hopeful that by coordinating through the waste management committee, they would be able to come up with a template of best practices for councils to follow.
The tonnage data is from McGrimmon Cartage, compiled by Richardson:
| Municipality | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
| Alleyn-et-Cawood | 116 | 101 | 109 | 102 | 89 |
| Bristol | 477 | 476 | 502 | 573 | 496 |
| Bryson | 169 | 168 | 161 | 170 | 171 |
| Campbell’s Bay | 200 | 174 | 190 | 186 | 177 |
| Chichester | 143 | 101 | 115 | 102 | 113 |
| Clarendon | 477 | 538 | 522 | 481 | 437 |
| Rapides-des-Joachims | 68 | 59 | 80 | 66 | 77 |
| Fort-Coulonge | 406 | 428 | 481 | 487 | 479 |
| L’Île-du-Grand-Calumet | 100 | 137 | 129 | 107 | 140 |
| L’Isle-aux-Allumettes | 459 | 394 | 504 | 495 | 513 |
| Litchfield | 157 | 173 | 175 | 165 | 180 |
| Mansfield-et-Pontefract | 739 | 746 | 1,011 | 949 | 790 |
| Otter Lake | 426 | 485 | 495 | 474 | 459 |
| Portage-du-Fort | 44 | 61 | 59 | 52 | 57 |
| Shawville | 483 | 669 | 757 | 676 | 648 |
| Sheenboro | 120 | 133 | 75 | 65 | 72 |
| Thorne | 75 | 100 | 102 | 97 | 103 |
| Waltham | 297 | 303 | 273 | 228 | 249 |
| Total | 4,956 | 5,246 | 5,740 | 5,475 | 5,250 |
