City Of Beaconsfield Announces A New Pilot Project For Its Recycling Collection

An innovative initiative that reaffirms the City's leadership in waste management

Beaconsfield, QC (Marketwired) - Building on its forward-thinking approach to waste management, the City of Beaconsfield enthusiastically announces a new pilot project that aims to audit its collection of recyclable materials. The one-year project, which is planned for deployment by the end of June, is in line with the Waste Reduction Strategy adopted by the City in 2014.

Since January 2016, the smart collection system based on the incentive tariff approach has delivered results that continue to impress. Sustained involvement by citizens led to a 35% reduction in the waste sent to landfill sites between 2013 and 2015, and in the first four months of 2016, Beaconsfield had realized a further 26% decrease compared to the same period last year. The average household bin collection rate was below 50% for the first quarter, or the equivalent of once every two weeks. This performance speaks volumes about the community's commitment and leadership, an obvious point of pride for the City.

Improving the management of recyclable materials

Today, the City of Beaconsfield wants to take this progress a step further. Because the contamination of recyclable materials by waste is a major risk factor, the City wishes to ensure the compliance and acceptability of materials sent to the recycling facility. Specifically, the project aims to measure:

• how often the blue bins are put out for collection;
• the level of contamination of recycled materials;
• the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) produced by the collection truck in relation to its use;
• the potential savings available when the recycling collection contract comes up for renewal.

The City wishes to emphasize it has no plans of instituting an incentive tariff to citizens for the blue bin collection.

"This exercise will enable us to identify the types of recyclables collected in order to ensure that the items thrown into the blue bin are recyclable materials and not waste. With this project, the City wants to confirm that its residents have indeed improved their household routines since the implementation of the smart collection. It is vital that the recyclable materials sent to the recycling facility are in compliance and do not exceed the acceptable level of contamination. We also want to assess the GHG emissions associated with the automated collection in order to establish the City's GHG inventory," said Georges Bourelle, Mayor of Beaconsfield.

"We are sincerely focused on making the best possible environmental management choices in the years ahead," he added. "The City of Beaconsfield is well on its way to setting the standard in this area, and the close collaboration of our citizens is showing that it is possible to work together to minimize our impact on the environment."

The pilot project, which is priced at $103,000, will be carried out at a cost of approximately $10,000, thanks to the invaluable support of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities' Green Municipal Fund, Éco Entreprises Québec, NRJ Environnement and Lateral Innovations.