Chris Lowrey
MUNICIPALITY OF PONTIAC March 14, 2018
The new council for the Municipality of Pontiac has decided to reverse a decision made by the previous council and implement door-to-door composting pickup in 2019.
The municipality was originally presented with two options: door-to-door pickup of composting or backyard domestic composting undertaken by each resident.
The municipality launched a survey last year to gauge the preferred composting method of residents.
The municipality’s former council approved the domestic composting program in March of 2017, citing the cheaper costs associated with the program as the main reason for adopting it.
However, that position has been reversed.

In the municipality’s monthly bulletin, it says that the current council does not think that domestic composting will help the municipality comply with the Quebec Residual Materials Management Plan, which will ban all organic in landfills by 2020.
Domestic composting does not allot for the composting of bones or meats, whereas the door-to-door option makes that possible.
“By 2020, we need to compost everything including bones and meat and we can’t do that with the backyard option,” said Municipality of Pontiac Communications Director Dominic Labrie.
The municipality’s newsletter says that instead of investing $40,000 in a temporary solution, council will go with the more permanent – and expensive – option.
The Municipality of Pontiac joins other municipalities in the region like Cantley and Chelsea to go with the door-to-door option.
In the run-up to the implementation of the plan, the municipality will put out a call for tenders and formulate a communication plan to ease the transition of residents.
Although the door-to-door option is more expensive, the newsletter points out that each ton of organic waste that’s diverted from landfills adds up to a savings of $114 for the municipality.