Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue to scrap garbage collection for waterfront businesses

The Montreal suburb of Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue is making cuts to its garbage collection. Soon it will no longer offer garage pickup for businesses along its waterfront strip, and businesses are being encouraged to compost instead.

Too much garbage is being thrown away, said Mayor Paolo Hawa.

Per person, she said, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue produces some of the most garbage on the entire island of Montreal, motivating the city to put this policy forward.

Businesses in its commercial sector will no longer have a waste pickup service provided by the city, and some businesses are not too happy about it.

Hair salon owner Jorge Mendez said he only received a letter about the change and felt there should have been more consultation on this. He said a program could have been initiated to educate business owners on how to make the transition.

"I think it's better to create a program and educate everybody here, then we all start participating in it," he said. "We pay our taxes. We deserve services from the city, right?"

Mayor Hawa said she knows it's a tall order.

"We admit we're asking for a lot. We're also for mindsets to shift. We're asking for a paradigm shift, and it's not easy," she said, "But they're not alone in this."

"We are hiring consultants to work with them, to train them on what to compost, what not to compost," she added. "If a specific restaurant or a specific merchant needs specific help for his establishment, the consultants are there to help."

"We are picking up the tab for all that," she said.

The city said businesses could pick up the city's existing waste contract for waste pickup in the future – though it would be out of pocket. The city said the change to collection is expected to be in place by the summer.