Chris Lowrey
CLARENDON June 14, 2018
At the MRC council of mayors meeting, Clarendon resident Tom Orr voiced concern about the fact that the Clarendon transfer station has been instructed to start charging residents for yard waste.
Orr is the former owner of the Clarendon transfer station.
He told the council of mayors that a new inspector with the Ministry of the Environment told the current owners that they’ll no longer be able to accept yard waste for free.
The transfer station opened nine years ago under Orr’s ownership. Since that time, it has been accepting yard waste like lawn clippings and branches from residents free of charge.
“This new [inspector] that came and did an inspection said, under no circumstances, can any leaf and garden waste be on the property beyond 100 cubic metres, which is about three dump truck loads,” Orr said.
Orr told the mayors that if the Clarendon transfer station has been told not to accept yard waste beyond a certain amount, it’s only a matter of time before other transfer stations are told the same thing.
“For the last nine years, almost 10 years, they’ve said nothing about the pile [of brush],” Orr said. “This is at 10 sites across the Pontiac that they’ll eventually be going to.”
Orr said he believes that the Clarendon station is the first on the inspection list, which is why it’s the first site to find out about the supposedly new rule.
“You can’t ding one guy without dinging the rest,” he said of the potential for this to affect other transfer stations in the region.
“We had an agreement with Shawville and Clarendon to basically let [residents] dump [yard waste] for free because it’s really no charge to us,” Orr said.
The Quebec government adopted its new waste management plan in 2011. The goal of the plan was to cut back on the amount of waste that ends up in landfills and increase recycling.
One of the major prongs of this plan was to ban the disposal of paper and wood by 2014. Eventually, the government wants to ban the disposal of all organics from landfills by 2020.
As a result, many municipalities have been under the gun to develop a new waste management plan that heavily incorporates composting.
For example, the Municipality of Pontiac recently adopted a plan for door-to-door pickup of compost.
Orr said he’s concerned about the cost to the relatively small municipalities in the Pontiac. Add to it the potential costs associated with a municipal composting program and the costs could be staggering.
“This has been a free service for nine years and now there’s a possibility that there’s a thousand tonnes there, and its probably $50 to $100 per ton to dispose of it,” Orr said. “That’s going to be at 10 sites so the quick math says it’s going to be a million dollars in the Pontiac to clean up all these sites.”
Orr, as well as Shawville Mayor Sandra Murray, expressed concern about where the yard waste will end up if the transfer station is forced to start charging residents.
“Now we have a problem where we’re going to have to charge residents to dispose of leaf and garden waste, which is not going to work,” Orr said. “[Yard waste] is going to be all over the country in ditches and other people’s properties.”
MRC Pontiac Warden Jane Toller said at the meeting she will get in touch with MNA André Fortin’s office to see what can be done to remedy the situation.
