Montreal borough's thriving composting plan to expand

Montreal’s Saint-Laurent borough is on a mission and, by next year, it wants all residential buildings on its territory to compost.

In 2015, organic waste collection was first offered to residential buildings with fewer than eight units, and throughout the years, the service increased to buildings with more and more units.

Next year, the borough hopes every single residential building will offer the service.

“I think we're quite proud that, Saint-Laurent is leading the charge in that,” said borough mayor Alan DeSousa.

Last year, 78-year-old Fikri Salama started composting for the first time in his live, and his building is one of many that offers collection.

He only needs to go to the garage and put his compost in the brown bin.

“All the cars are in the garage,” he said. “It's a normal way to go to the garage, every time we go down, we take our composting down.”

The building’s concierge said residents were hesitant at first.

“First, no, we had all kinds of misconceptions of, how is it going to go? Is it going to smell at all this?” said Peter Anoussis.

Things have changed at the building and across the borough.

DeSousa says that composting saves the city money and that the borough has seen a 15 per cent reduction on landfill waste.

“Landfill costs are high and landfill costs are going up,” he said. “So every time we get an opportunity to divert material from going to landfill, we're saving money.”

To top it off, Montreal’s first compost plant opened last month in Saint-Laurent and the borough is partnering with a group that will educate tenants on the best way to compost.

“They're pretty happy to, to start doing it, and it, it really makes a big difference,” Vertcite project coordinator Alexis Legare-Hamel.