Ready, set, recycle: 50 Rosemont families take on zero waste challenge

For the next five months, Kelsey Dancause and her family will be on a mission to reduce their household waste. 

They volunteered for the second edition of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie's Zero Waste Challenge and were selected as one of 50 families to take part in the challenge.

Participants will have access to support from experts to help them in waste-reduction strategies, as well as workshops and a community of others with the same goal.

According to the borough, last year's participants reduced their waste by 51 per cent in five months.

For Dancause, who has two young children, she's making the challenge a family affair. 

She told CBC's Let's Go that in an effort to reduce, as she plans one of her children's birthday parties, she's put the word out to other parents that recycled gifts are A-OK.

"It's kind of silly to ask parents to spend their time and money to go out to buy gifts when actually we have books and puzzles and toys lying around that kids could very happily share," she said.

Living in Rosemont, Dancause said, they've been fortunate to be able to compost and recycle with relative ease and to have waste-conscious stores to shop at in the area.

"Whenever I buy rice or noodles or little things like that, i'ts not so difficult for me to take a jar or a container and fill it up at one of the stores in the neighbourhood," she said. 

Changing habits

Another Rosemont resident, Jean-François Leblanc, is taking on the zero waste challenge with his family in order to adopt better habits.

He said he's hoping the challenge will make his family "more aware of general consumption" and encourage them to change their habits.

"When we go to the grocery store, we buy things we know we will cook or consume in the next days," he said. 

"We are just trying to find new ways to understand better what is specifically recyclable, or what we can put in the composting bin."

Participants are also being encouraged to rely on one another for ideas and tips, and Leblanc said he's found the private Facebook group dedicated to the challenge a great place for inspiration. 

Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie Mayor François William Croteau said in a release that the borough was so pleased with the results of the first challenge that they wanted to harness residents' enthusiasm for another go.

He said that the borough was inspired to take measures in its own offices to reduce waste and to become more conscious of their ecological footprint.