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Montreal’s fine for not composting may be a national first

[Montreal’s composting bylaw will only apply initially to 350,000 households with access to curbside compost location. EATER]

The City of Montreal has approved a bylaw that would fine residents as much as $1,000 for those who fail to sort their compostable waste, a move that may be a first in Canada.

The bylaw adopted by Montreal council’s executive committee on Tuesday would charge fines ranging from $300 to $1,000 for failure to sort organic waste and put out compostable materials for waste pickup along with garbage.

Montreal’s new fines appear to be unique for a major Canadian city. In Calgary residents can be fined between $50 and $100 for failing to keep their green waste free of pests and offensive smells. Vancouver’s composting bylaw doesn’t list penalties for non-compliance. Toronto’s bylaw outlines fees for green waste pickup but doesn’t appear to list fines for not putting that waste out to be collected. And Victoria can fine residents for not maintaining a clean waste-disposal site but not for not putting the waste out.

Details on enforcement weren’t released though Réal Ménard, the Montreal executive committee member responsible for the environment, told CBC News that the city wouldn’t be “repressive” in enforcing the bylaw.

But Ménard also said that the bylaw is an important measure in the city’s efforts to reach an ambitious goal for the percentage of organic waste recovered by the city. The city plans to build four new facilities to handle the compost. Currently it’s processed by boroughs that already have a green waste program.

In 2008, the most recent year for which data is available, only eight per cent of Montreal’s organic waste was recovered. But the city’s goal is to recover 80 per cent of organic waste by 2019.

The bylaw will only apply to 350,000 households with access to curbside compost location. The city says that’s expected to rise to 536,000 households — every residential building with eight or fewer units — by 2019.

As of 2011, 61 per cent of Canadian households had participated in composting, up from just 38 per cent in 1994, Statistics Canada said.

Montreal opposition councillors told CBC News that the new bylaw, which begins Jan. 1, 2018, will be too difficult to enforce to make a difference in the city’s organic waste recovery rate.

Opposition Projet Montréal interim leader Luc Ferrandez and the Compost Council of Canada were not immediately available for comment.