The city of Montreal has closed a third ecocentre as it faces multiple problems in dealing with hauling away trash.

Earlier this year Montreal shut down the St. Laurent and LaSalle dumps because of issues with the company that had the contract to haul away and sort waste.

The original contractor, Melimax, was barred from competing in public contracts for five years after the firm was accused of dumping waste illegally. A replacement company selected by an insurance firm turned out to be owned by the wife of the owner of Melimax.

When the contract ended, no other company made a bid for the job.

That has led to more waste being directed to the five other ecocentres, and on Tuesday it was too much for the Cote des Neiges dump.

Faced with massive piles and a shortage of drivers to haul away waste, the Cote des Neiges ecocentre closed and only reopened late Wednesday morning.

At noon the lines for people trying to dump items in Cote des Neiges was a kilometre long, and yet it was still shorter than in other locations.

"I went to the one in St. Michel on Jarry near Iberville. It was a two-hour wait in line. I went to the one on Des Carrieres, it was the same thing," said Mario Georges, who tried and failed to get rid of his junk on Tuesday.

Undeterred, he tried again Wednesday morning.

"I went today thinking it would be faster. We've been out since 8:30 in the morning trying to dump our stuff."

The contractor who normally handles the Cote des Neiges centre said he normally hauls away eight to nine containers of waste each day, but in recent weeks has been struggling to take away 25 containers daily.

Opposition leader Lionel Perez said the city of Montreal needs to pick up the ball since people are spring cleaning, while others are getting ready to move.

"It's the worst time that this could hit and unfortunately they haven't been pro-active. They haven't told us what they're going to do. They're really on autopilot, they're standing still," said Perez.

"They should be going outside the island of Montreal to see if we can find any kind of other providers to fill the void."