Montreal's recycled glass is still ending up in landfills

Three years after the inauguration of the Lachine sorting centre in the west end of Montreal, the machinery to improve glass recycling no longer works.

The equipment has been down for several months due to mechanical failures, and not for the first time.

According to Radio-Canada's information, the $2.5 million system offered by Éco Entreprise Québec has only worked for about a year and thousands of tons of glass recovered by Montrealers have been sent to landfills.

When the Lachine sorting centre was inaugurated, the city of Montreal had hoped the state-of-the-art facility would improve the quality of glass sorting.

At the time, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said that with such equipment, the city would be able to increase the value of recycled glass because the cleaning system would be more efficient.

Some even believed that it could produce glass of sufficient purity to supply the Owens-Illinois foundry in Montreal.

However, three years later, mechanical failures have dogged the system.

Jean-Sébastien Daigle, who manages the sorting centre, says the equipment hasn't been functional since October.

"When we arrived, it was at a standstill ... there are repairs to be made because there are things that have been broken on the equipment," he said.

However, he is optimistic that the system will soon be repaired and functional.

"We are waiting for certain parts ... there are long delivery times. All the parts should arrive in May, so we are aiming for a start in June," he said.

A Radio-Canada source who wishes to remain anonymous confirms that the machine has often been offline.

"It often has to be repaired. It requires a lot of maintenance," they said.

The director of residual materials management at the city of Montreal's environment department, Arnaud Budka, is well aware of the situation and points to supply issues.

"It's really a question of the availability of parts and the efficiency of the technology," he said.

"We are in a situation where we have not been able to take full advantage of this equipment because it broke, because there were performance problems and it is new equipment."

Budka recalls that the system was offered to the city and to the Lachine sorting centre as part of a pilot project of the Plan Verre l'innovation plan, developped by Éco Entreprise Québec.

"You have to keep in mind that there are pilot [projects] that are successful and others that are not successful," he says.

'Good' quality glass sent to landfill

The city of Montreal maintains that the glass-sorting system is of adequate quality.

But a spokesperson confirmed that, even when the machine was working properly, glass was sent to the landfill where it was used as covering material.

"The quality of the glass produced was good. However, Ricova mentioned that they were unable to send the glass for recycling, although tests had been carried out. The glass was therefore recovered at the landfill for uses such as the daily covering or the construction of traffic lanes," said the spokesperson.

The Lachine sorting centre receives approximately 90,000 tonnes of recyclable materials per year. About 13 per cent of this material is glass, or 11,700 tonnes.

Ricova says the glass "was always recovered" and that last fall the company was in a good position to reach an agreement with a Quebec recycling company interested in its glass.

However, since last November, the new manager of the sorting centre, Via, has been sending materials to Bellemare — a company in the Trois-Rivières region that uses glass for sandblasting and pool water filtration.

"It costs us more, that's for sure. But it allows us to have a glass that is decontaminated on site. That's what the sorting equipment that is not functional had to do," said Budka.