​New sorting center for glass recovery planned for west of Montreal

Éco Entreprises Québec (EEQ) recently announced they will provide Ville de Montréal with a complete leading-edge glass sorting and cleaning system, as part of the construction of a new sorting centre in Lachine. This three million dollar investment will contribute to the optimization and performance of selective collection in the region.

September 22, the Ville de Montréal executive committee approved the awarding of a contract to Compagnie de recyclage de papiers MD inc. to design, build, operate and ensure the maintenance of a new recyclable materials sorting centre in the Lachine borough (Fairway and François-Lenoir) near Montréal.

"A leader in sustainable development, Ville de Montréal is joining forces with other municipalities across the province and has committed to investing the efforts required to achieve the objectives of the Québec government's action plan under the Québec residual materials management policy," affirmed Mayor Denis Coderre. "The construction of a new sorting centre in Montréal West constitutes another step toward increasing the recycling rates of paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal and attaining the goal of recovering 70% of these materials."

"The sorting centre in the Saint-Michel Environmental Complex is currently operating at full capacity," noted Mr. Réal Ménard, executive committee member responsible for sustainable development, the environment, large parks and green spaces and mayor of the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough. "The construction of a centre in the West Island will help better meet the city's waste management needs and reduce the distance over which the materials are transported."

"As part of the construction of this new sorting centre, Éco Entreprises Québec—the organization that oversees the funding of curbside recycling in Québec—will provide Ville de Montréal with a complete leading-edge glass sorting and cleaning system," explained Ms. Maryse Vermette, president and CEO of ÉEQ. "In collaboration with our British partner Krysteline Technologies and Québec equipment manufacturer Machinex, we will integrate the system right from the design phase: a first in North America. With this investment of over three million dollars, we are proud to enable the sorting centre to produce high quality glass that will be given a second life in a range of applications, including new glass containers, abrasives and cement additives," she added.

The construction of a sorting centre to process the agglomeration's recyclables is in line with the Plan directeur de gestion des matières résiduelles. The new state-of-the-art facility will have a capacity of at least 100 000 tonnes per year. The centre in Lachine will pursue LEED Gold certification, in keeping with the Politique Montréal Durable 2016-2020, the city's sustainable development policy. The contractor will therefore be charged with designing an efficient high-quality building that adheres to the principles of sustainable development.

To obtain more information on Ville de Montréal's waste management initiatives or consult the Portrait 2016 des matières résiduelles de l'agglomération, go to ville.montreal.qc.ca/environnement (in French).

Éco Entreprises Québec (ÉEQ) is the organization that develops the Schedule of Contributions and collects company contributions, which are then redistributed to finance municipal curbside recycling services in Quebec. ÉEQ also encourages innovation and best practices in order to optimize the recyclable materials value chain. To do so, ÉEQ cooperates, on the one hand, with companies to reduce quantities of materials at the source and encourage the use of recyclable materials, as well as with municipalities and other stakeholders to increase recycling and the economic value of recovered materials.