Quebec company unveils innovative recycling project

A new recycling process for juice boxes, milk cartons and plastic bags was launched in Quebec Wednesday.

For the first time in the world, these types of products will be broken down into thermoplastic resin granules that can be used in industrial and commercial product manufacturing.

The recycling will take place at Groupe RCM’s plant in Yamachiche.

The project took three years and $3.5 million to research and develop. Food processing and packaging firm Tetra Pak, juice manufacturer A. Lassonde Inc., dairy company Natrel and Recyc-Québec collectively provided Groupe RCM with $1 million in seed capital. Founded in 1981, Groupe RCM is a non-profit corporation that creates jobs for people with physical or cognitive impairments in the recycling industry.

Although these materials are already collected and recycled, the conventional methods used result in waste residual products, said Tetra Pak’s manager of environmental affairs Elizabeth Comere in an interview.

She said the new method is unique because it results in zero waste products.

The plastic pellets that result can be used to make a wide variety of products including flower pots, railway ties, guard rail posts, pallets and plastic lumber.

Comere said that some of these products are sent out of Canada to be processed in the United States because we don’t have the facilities to do the work here. "(The new system) is providing a local solution," she said.

The end goal of the venture is to increase recycling across Canada, she added.

At first, the plant will accept these types of materials collected in Quebec. But if the new line is successful, the plant could eventually accept recycling collected from Ontario and Eastern Canada, Comere said.

By 2011, it should be functioning at full capacity.

"We don’t want to eliminate the old way," she said. "What we want is to grow recycling rates. We want to have many technological solutions."