by Nancy Hunt
MRC PONTIAC – Do you compost organic waste at home? Would you be willing to pay more to ensure that household waste is disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible? You can put your answers to these and a few other waste management related questions in a survey regarding the future practices in the area.
by Nancy Hunt
MRC PONTIAC – Do you compost organic waste at home? Would you be willing to pay more to ensure that household waste is disposed of in the most environmentally friendly way possible? You can put your answers to these and a few other waste management related questions in a survey regarding the future practices in the area.
“Ratepayers in Pontiac currently pay through their municipal tax bill an average of $175 / tonne for waste disposal,” said Kari Richardson, MRC Pontiac Environmental Coordinator who is managing the survey. While the MRC Pontiac took over the local management of household waste and has been transporting it to the Lachute Landfill since 2010, this is supposed to be only a temporary solution.
“We hope to gather answers for use in a public consultation,” said Richardson of formulating a long-term solution. Last August the MRC Pontiac and the Collines-de-l’Outaouais and Vallée-de-la-Gatineau MRCs joined with the City of Gatineau to tender candidates to finance and build a regional treatment facility. The agreement fell through when there were no submissions, the main reason being that a minimum of 100,000 tonnes of waste annually is needed for sustainability of any business model.
“We’re committed to reducing and recycling our garbage production, but there isn’t enough of it within a specific radius to make transportation practical,” said Richardson. “Now we need an alternative, and public consultations are the beginning of the process.”
The anonymous survey takes about 5 minutes to fill out online at http://www.mrcpontiac.qc.ca or paper copies can be picked up at every municipal office or at the MRC Pontiac office.
