Collection of recyclable materials | Big changes in the bac from January 1

Gift wrappers, food containers, bottles, the day after New Year’s Day can give headaches to anyone who does their housework and has to figure out what goes in the trash and the recycling bin. But since this 1^is January is simpler.
You can put almost anything that looks like a package or container, and it will be the same rules regardless of the municipality where you are. The Press republishes this text published a few weeks ago to help you find your way.

Putting the same things in the recycling bin everywhere in Quebec, increasing recycling rates, making businesses pay instead of municipalities: the reform of selective collection aims to improve recycling and simplify life for the public.

“It’s a real little revolution that we’re about to experience,” says Maryse Vermette, president and general manager of Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ), the organization representing companies that market packaging, containers and printed materials, now responsible for managing and financing the selective collection system, under the principle of “extended producer responsibility” (EPR).

From 1^is January, wherever you are in Quebec, all containers, packaging and printed matter must be placed pell-mell in the recycling bin. Nothing else.

There will only be three exceptions: pressurized metal containers (aerosol), polystyrene protective packaging (which breaks into balls) and biodegradable or degradable plastics.

Even things that have been said to be non-recyclable for years, such as potato chip bags, plastic wrap that covers certain foods or individual yogurt containers, will go in the bin.

“It’s the egg or the chicken”, illustrates M^me Vermette: “these materials were not recovered, due to lack of outlets, but by not recovering them, there was not sufficient volume to develop markets. »

Entrusting the management of selective collection to a single actor will make it possible to collect larger quantities of materials and make their recycling more profitable, predicts the one who has been planning the implementation of the reform for two years.

Éco Entreprises Québec will also be able to optimize the collection circuits and the processing of materials, by being responsible for the entire system.

” Currently, [le centre de tri de] Thetford Mines takes material from Abitibi. It doesn’t make common sense,” illustrates M^me Presumptuous.

Modernization of sorting centers

Éco Entreprises Québec will invest “tens and tens of millions of dollars” in the modernization of Quebec’s sorting centers over the coming years, in order to improve the quality of the materials that come out and thus sell them at a better price, explains M^me Presumptuous.

“By improving quality, we risk having a return on investment,” she says, adding that the centralized management of the system gives her organization “financial capacity that the sorting centers, individually, did not have” before. .

“Sursorting” centers are also in the plans, to more precisely separate the different types of plastics and “mixed fibers” such as paper and cardboard.

“It is not beneficial to invest in highly sophisticated equipment [pour] all sorting centers in Quebec”, some of which process little volume, indicates M^me Presumptuous.

Three sorting centers in remote regions were recently closed, some of which were transformed into materials transshipment centers, and others could be in the coming years, depending on modernization.

A brand new sorting center will come into operation on January 2 in Montreal East, to replace the one, closed due to obsolescence, at the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex, and a call for proposals has been launched to build a new one in Estrie by 2027.

Others are planned in the medium term in the northern suburbs of Montreal and in the Quebec region.

Towards more ecological packaging

To encourage companies to adopt packaging and containers made from materials that are easy to recover and recycle, EEQ will penalize the use of materials that are not with “ecomodulation” of prices, explains Maryse Vermette.

Companies, whose contribution to financing the selective collection system is determined according to the weight of the packaging they generate, will pay double the rate for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which makes up, for example, bedding packaging, and for polylactic acid (PLA), from which biodegradable or degradable plastic bags are made.

“We want to send the message that when we make a decision about packaging, there are consequences,” says M.^me Vermette, which intends to encourage companies to make more ecological choices.

Companies will also be encouraged to reduce the weight of their containers and packaging, to prioritize those made of a single material rather than a mixture that is difficult to separate, and to stop overpackaging.