Waste Reduction Pilot Test

The City of Beaconsfield, located in the suburbs of Montréal, wishes to reduce the amount of waste that goes to the land fill by implementing a usage-pricing pilot project (PAYT – Pay As You Throw), combined with a vast domestic compost campaign. The city’s population produces more waste annually than the Quebec average. Therefore, the city has decided to reduce its waste at the source by at least 60%, in accordance with Montréal’s Municipal Waste Management Master Plan, and in preparation for the Quebec regulation that will ban the burial of organic matter starting in 2020. Reducing at the source will allow the city to attain their diversion objectives from Montréal’s Municipal Waste Management Master Plan at a low cost. The city will implement a pilot project in two phases that will affect 300 of the city’s 6,000 residences. Initially, Beaconsfield plans to establish a communication plan that aims at raising awareness with its residents as well as a volunteer master composter program to help residents with their composting. In the second phase, the participants will receive one of the composter models being tested as well as a garbage bin in the size of their choice. At the end of the project, the city will evaluate the rate of diversion attained using the information gathered through a survey conducted among the 300 participants and a characterization of the residual matter performed by a specialized company. If the city determines that the project is conclusive, it will enforce composting and the residents will pay a fee proportionate to their waste. Other similar municipalities can draw from Beaconsfield’s experience to reduce the amount of waste buried and reduce collection costs. To do so, the city agrees to share its experience, including the challenges met and the solutions developed to resolve these problems. This is an innovative project because it proposes a sustainable and low-cost solution to the management of residual matter. (Project description from original funding application)