The glass route project, which aims to recover as many containers as possible, is expanding with two containers installed in Bécancour and Galeries Nicolet in the Center-du-Québec region.
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A few minutes were enough between the opening of the collection point and the arrival of the first users.
“I picked her up to take her to Trois-Rivières, but it will be closer to home there,” said Julie Courchesne, a citizen of Nicolet.
Such is the popularity of these glass recovery containers that Groupe Bellemare, the initiator of the project, had to increase the number of empty runs the company makes.
The ones near the SAQ are particularly popular.
“We had planned monthly collections, in some places we have to do it every week and even twice a week,” said company president Serge Bellemare.
He doesn’t hide the fact that his company, which recovers glass, has big plans.
“We will invest to increase the capacity of our processing plant to be able to process up to 60% of Quebec’s glass,” he said.
The recovered glass is converted into a pool filtration product, but other outlets could emerge. In particular, it is about importing a technology from Europe that would make it possible to produce insulation to be placed under the asphalt to avoid the effects of freezing and thawing.
“Yes, salvaging a glass bottle could potentially avoid potholes,” the president said.
Glass reclamation isn’t the only environmental concern on the South Shore.
Many citizens are urging elected officials to move forward with measures to encourage composting.
“People are waiting for us to collect organic material,” explained the mayor of Bécancour, Lucie Allard.
The inter-communal committee for integrated waste management Bécancour-Nicolet-Yamaska , the organization responsible for the collection of residues, has not yet decided on the introduction of the brown bin.
“When we collect brown bins, there are a lot of greenhouse gas emissions released for the small number of bins we collect. We’re not Montreal or Drummondville,” said Mario Lacroix, General Manager of RIGIDBNY.
“We have to look at all the scenarios, you have to know that there are other technologies that mean we could collect decomposable material in the bins and treat it in other ways,” added Nicolet Mayor Genevieve Dubois.
The Régie, which had to make a decision on the implementation of the composting towards the end of the summer, will do so before the winter due to the change of manager.