Nauseous odors and grubs: with the start of summer, more and more Montrealers are concerned about the accumulation of waste due to their collection which is now every two weeks in certain areas.
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“[Sur plusieurs coins de rue], it’s full of waste,” Mikhael Roussin, resident of the Mercier – Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, told LCN. According to him, the abundance started last winter, which was not too serious. However, with the arrival of June, it would have become “disgusting”.
Mikhael specifies that his balcony contains grubs: “it’s unsanitary, it’s unacceptable, it’s unlivable in this weather, we won’t go and sit outside,” he denounces.
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After carrying out a pilot project on spacing out garbage collection in 2022, the borough then gradually expanded its measure. From one sector to another, the intention would be to apply it throughout the district by the end of 2024.
The main goal remains to encourage people to recycle and compost more.
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Recycling and composting continue to happen every week, but the trash cans, for two-thirds of the borough, are picked up every two weeks, said Pierre Lessard-Blais, mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
“What we realize is that among all Montrealers who have access to composting, two out of three Montrealers do not compost, so we are reaching the limits of awareness,” he declared.
According to Mr. Lessard-Blais, 50% of the contents of the trash cans are composting.
This measure nevertheless remains unclear for many people, to the point where a community organization now schedules waste collections in the streets and in parks.
“The idea is not to replace municipal services, we don’t have the funding for that, we’re not garbage collectors […] but it is to show that people are ready to do their part and that the municipality also needs to listen a little more to citizens,” indicated Kim Gravel, volunteer for the organization La Ligue 33.
At the time of writing these lines, the boroughs of Mercier – Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and Saint-Laurent are the only ones wanting to space out their waste collection.
