Community compost collection coming soon to NDG

by Stephen Mcleod

There has been a lot of talk lately about the need for municipal composting programs across the Island of Montréal, but so far, it's mostly just talk. The Québec government is slowly organizing in order to provide organic waste recycling, but there's no telling when such a program will actually be available to the citizens of Montréal - and with the reality of climate change well upon us, it's pretty clear that there's no time to waste.

That's why, last July, we took matters into our own hands, and started a community-supported compost collection program in St-Henri, with the collaboration of the Éco-Quartier. We've worked throughout the winter, providing weekly pickup for participants already established in the program, and now that spring is here again, we're looking to offer the service to residents of N.D.G.

Our goal is not only to divert organic materials from landfills, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and soil contamination, but also to perform our collection in the most environmentally sound manner. To offer a quick resume of our environmental initiatives so far:

* The containers we supply to participants are recycled, and are therefore diverted from landfills; refurbished using less energy than creating new containers, and with a lesser carbon output.
* The cornstarch bag liners we use are organic-based and fully-compostable, meaning complete non-toxic re-integration with the soil.
* The various documents we produce for potential and current participants are printed on recycled paper.

Yet this is just the beginning of our plan. Transportation is a huge ecological problem, and is arguably the most crucial component of a well-functioning 'green' economy. It is of the greatest importance that we cease to rely on fossil fuels, and any mass recycling program that continues to work with traditional fuels would be ultimately unsustainable.

This is why our goal for the coming year is to develop an initiative that will recycle used vegetable oil discarded from the innumerable restaurants across the city, which after proper treatment, would easily power the necessary collection vehicles. All that we need is the continued support of the community, (and a greater number of participants), in order to be able to pay for this development. Until then, we have to content ourselves by making judicious use of a gasoline-powered pickup truck to perform our collection.

The cost to participants is just $5 per week, tax included, with discounts available if you pay for 3 months of service at a time. Along with the collection service, we provide you with your recycled container, your compostable cornstarch bags, and whatever cleaning and maintenance may be necessary to keep your container looking (and smelling) nice.

The benefits of composting for the environment are undeniable. Proper composting greatly reduces the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted from landfills, and results in an end product that is rich in nutrients to be returned to the earth. It also allows a typical household to further reduce their garbage production by approximately one-third.

For more information, or to get started in the program, please visit our website at www.independentmessenger.ca/compost , send us an email at compost@independentmessenger.ca , or call Stephen at (514) 815-8550.

Add new comment

Certainly, if we are going

Submitted by Stephen McLeod (not verified) on Tue, 2008-05-06 15:09.

Certainly, if we are going to work to effect positive change, it will require a variety of initiatives, from those of individual citizens and volunteers at the Éco-Quartier to wide-ranging government programs.

I think that an excellent model for city-wide composting would have community compost bins, like those of the Éco-Quartier, adequately distributed throughout neighbourhoods and managed by a deputy from each neighbourhood. It's true that the less energy used to get the organic waste to its destination, the better, and on a small scale, the quality of the compost produced would be excellent.

Realistically speaking, however, the government has thusfar not dedicated the necessary resources to make such a technique possible, and it is unlikely that they would recognize the wisdom of such an approach. This is the kind of thing that happens at the grassroots level, but without proper funding and community involvement, will remain limited in its effectiveness.

The work of the Éco-Quartier, for example, is a real positive contribution to the community. Lack of legitimate government funding, however, means that the compost sites that they manage are limited in capacity, are closed for the wintertime, and are located a little too far away for a fair number of people to get to them.

The collection service that we offer was originally started in partnership with the Éco-Quartier Louis-Cyr and Ville Émard, in order to boost the number of citizens taking advantage of their compost facilities. A moderate increase in our collection volume and the deep freeze of winter forced us to seek out a higher-capacity facility as a destination for the collected waste. We were delighted to find the necessary accomodations less than a kilometre from our furthest-west pickup point.

When the city does start collection, it will not only burn fuel up and down city streets, but will then truck the collected waste off-island for processing. While we've had to trade in our bicycle trailer for a gas-powered truck - a logistic necessity in order to perform our collection - our goal remains to get the collection as close to carbon-neutral as possible, as addressed by our plan to run recycled vegetable oil through collection vehicles. If we have our way, we will bring back the bike trailer too, in order to limit noise and air pollution on residential streets.

So for those who compost in their backyards for free, or carry their buckets to the Éco-Quartier for $2.00 a year, as well as to those who manage these community sites, we say 'Bravo!' These are the kinds of effort we need right now, in order to get our organic waste treated properly.

For those who find themselves unable to compost without a residential collection program, we offer our services as another of those efforts to make urban composting a reality today.

Thanks to the Maison Verte for their support and to everyone for their comments. Self-reflection is always necessary to ensure one remains a part of the solution.

I wish to take issue with

Submitted by Judith Bird (not verified) on Mon, 2008-05-05 23:05.

I wish to take issue with Stephen Mcleod's opening lines in this article, where he says, "There has been a lot of talk lately about the need for municipal composting programs across the Island of Montréal, but so far, it's mostly just talk [...] there's no telling when such a program will actually be available to the citizens of Montréal…". In fact, the Ville de Montréal already has a composting program under way, albeit of limited scale. In NDG it is operated by Éco-Quartier Décarie/Loyola. While it does not currently offer household pick-up, as Independent Messenger Service does, it provides (I believe) four public compost bins in various areas of NDG, and the price is right – a one-time $2 deposit for a key to the bin, as compared with $220 a year for Independent Messenger’s service. I personally acquired a key to my closest compost bin last summer and have been using it continually throughout the year, summer and winter. OK, it’s a 15-min walk, or a 5-min cycle ride, to the bin but, hey – it’s a bit of exercise and it avoids the transportation/fuel issue altogether (unless you consider that the exercise might cause me to eat a little more, or wear down a little more shoe leather). Certainly, the bin I use is maintained regularly and in addition, having provided an email address, I get occasional updates including information on usage and state of the bins and times when I could, if I wished, volunteer to join others doing communal work on it. (I have to say that I have not, personally, volunteered my services in this respect.) For further information, you can contact: Robert Couture, agent de terrain, Éco-Quartier Décarie/Loyola, 514-482-8778 (email: ecoquartier@ecohosting.com).

Éco-Quartier and composting

Submitted by Judith Bird (not verified) on Mon, 2008-05-05 23:14.

Éco-Quartier and composting continued.... I sent a copy of my comments to Éco-Quartier Décarie/Loyola and received the following response: Dear Ms. Bird, I very much enjoyed your letter and appreciate that you took the time to mention our community composters. I think that you make an excellent point in comparing the price of a $2 key deposit versus $220 / year for pick-up. In addition, I am curious to find out how the pick-up service transports the waste. Are they burning more greenhouse gases with a vehicle? I will be be following their program with interest. With that said, unfortunately not everyone is as implicated as you are. Many people are uninterested in going out of their way to dispose of their household waste. For those people, at home pick-up may be the best way to avoid all of that matter ending up in landfill. As I have often seen with environmental issues, there are so many areas to consider! Again, thank you so much for cc-ing me. We'll keep letting you know about our composting activities and maybe one day you'll be able to join us. Happy spring! Nikki Schiebel - Directrice, Valorisateurs Écologiques (Éco-quartier Décarie-Loyola), 4101, Boul. Décarie, Montréal (Québec) H4A 3J8, Tél.: 514.482.8778 (email: ecoquartier@ecohosting.com)