Montreal opens first compost plant

After years of discussion, Montreal’s first compost plant officially opened Monday.

Truckloads of organic matter will be composted there — it can process 50,000 tonnes of yard waste and food scraps yearly.

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante said the city previously had to send its organic waste to Ontario, travelling almost 200 kilometres before the composting started.

“Now, with this centre, I mean, the distance will be maximum six kilometres,” she said.

The site will produce up to 20,000 tonnes of high-grade compost each year. Since the contamination rate is below 1 per cent, the brown gold can be spread safely on fields and greenspaces, while reducing what goes to landfill.

Quebec’s environment minister, Benoit Charette, said the majority of what goes in the trash is organic.

“We can treat that, we can do compost, we can make renewable energy. So, it’s a total waste to send these substances to landfills,” he said.

Built by the French multinational Veolia at a cost of $169 million, the composting centre is located on Henri-Bourassa Boulevard west in the borough of Saint-Laurent. The smell was a concern, said Alan Desousa, the borough’s mayor.

“Everyone said, yes, we want to compost, but no one wanted the composting site in their community,” he said.

“We felt that we wanted to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.”

The smell will be contained by the facility’s double doors and different levels of pressure in the plant will keep gases in, said Frederic Van Heems, Veolia's senior executive vice-president for North America. 

The final hurdle is to get more people to compost as only 35 per cent of Montrealers do.

“If you haven't done it for different reasons, it’s time to start,” said Plante.

The goal is to have 60 per cent of the population composting regularly by 2025.