Janet Steadman is a groomer at the Yazoo pet supply shop on Donegani in Pointe-Claire.
She says the work prodices several garbage bags of pet hair weekly, but since December, she’s found a solution for all that waste.
“I take it home every week,” she smiled.
“I put it in a bag I take it home. It’s actually compostable so we compost it.”
Pointe-Claire Mayor John Belvedere believes the city owes residents like Steadman for a grant the municipality just won.
“That money that we collect is because of what the citizens do,” he told Global News. “It’s $756,000 from the Quebec government and from Recyc-Québec.”
The award recognizes the city’s recycling and waste reduction efforts for 2018, for which Pointe-Claire beat out 32 other neighbourhoods in Montreal.
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The municipality collected 79 per cent of its waste as recycling in 2018 and was one of only six neighbourhoods to meet or exceed the agglomoration target of 70 per cent.
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Pointe Claire also managed to reduce household waste by 31 per cent over five years.
But all that effort could be winding up at a dead end. Recycling material has been piling up at the Saint-Michel sorting plant, where material from Pointe-Claire and other municipalities is taken.
With China refusing Canadian recycling products, claiming that it’s contaminated, local recycling companies and municipalities are struggling to find somewhere to process the material.
“It’s a Montreal problem,” Belvedere pointed out, adding that his city pays the central Montreal administration for the service. “They need to get on top of their game and I’m still not confident with some of their proposals on the table.”
He fears the problem will only get worse.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, however, announced a ban Wednesday of all plastic bags on the island — a move Belevedere believes could help.
“We’re on board for that,” he said.
Another solution, Steadman pointed out, is sorting at source.
“I know some cities they have different bins for, like, cardboard, plastic,” she mused. “Maybe something like that.”
In the meantime, she will continue to what she can to reduce waste.
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