The Municipality of Pontiac announced last week that its Ecocentre will be back up and running this month after a nearly six-year hiatus, giving residents a place to recycle items that cannot be disposed of during regular waste pick-up.
The Ecocentre, located at 1975 chemin Lac-des-Loups, will be open on Apr. 18 and Apr. 25 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., and is free of charge throughout April. The municipality will look into opening the centre for more hours in following weeks and months.
The following items are accepted at the centre: electronics, tires, agricultural plastics, wood, drywall, metal, green waste, refrigerators, bulky items, and more, with a full list of allowed materials coming soon.
Certain items are not accepted at this time, including shingles, medications and biomedical waste, as well as tires with rims. Residents are asked to bring proof of residence, and to also sort their items before arriving.
The Ecocentre has been closed since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a 2020 interview with radio station CHIP 101.9, then-assistant director general Genevieve Latulippe said the municipality stopped the service due to an issue sourcing containers.
“The municipality was forced to temporarily close its Ecocentre because the provider, Centre de Tri Pontiac, was no longer able to provide us with containers,” she said.
Director general Mario Allen said that over the years, the municipality has offered door-to-door pickup for certain items.
He said before the municipality re-opened the Ecocentre, some updates were needed such as an on-site toilet, some gates, as well as a fire extinguisher and replacements of the building’s windows.
He said the municipality was almost ready to re-open the centre last year, but didn’t because of the municipal elections.
“We just had too much on our plate last year. We had pavement to do and stuff like that, and we were running short staff. So we said, ‘Well, let’s take another year and make sure that everything is on pace now,’” he said.
Municipalities in Quebec are being incentivized to reduce the weight of their garbage streams by increasing recycling and compost collection. Allen said that the Ecocentre is crucial to this process, as it removes heavy or dangerous items from the garbage stream.
“The main goal is to recycle instead of throwing stuff in the garbage,” he said, adding that the municipality can also get money from recycling certain materials.
“Some people are stuck with tires, but we are going to take them [ . . . ] We are developing some markets, and we can send that stuff to many places to be recycled,” he said.
He said for electronics, the municipality is looking at making an agreement with a company that will send them a pallet for recycling electronics.
“Whenever I’m going to have too many of them, they will send us a truck, and they’re going to pick them up. They might even be giving money for TVs, computers, and stuff like that.”
