Commentary by FRANK MEWES

My dear fellow citizens,

I work as a truck driver and collector of recyclable waste, and I would like to draw your attention to the nature of this work and raise your consciousness regarding your recycling habits. Why? Because, according to my own and my colleagues’ experience, the practice of recycling in Quebec is, rare exceptions aside, rather frustrating and leaves much to be desired. And because I believe that it could be better without much extra effort from your side, if you only muster a little goodwill.

Of all areas in which I have so far collected, the city of Montreal is especially bad, the Plateau and Mile-End are by far the worst in terms of concentration of messy, disorderly and overloaded recycling containers. L’Esplanade beats it all—of the containers I collected there, I could count on one hand the ones that featured a somewhat separated content. After all I’ve heard about Plateau dwellers as oh-so-conscious, alternative and concerned with the environment and quality of their neighbourhood, my unfavourable collecting experience in this area came as a sobering surprise.

According to our estimates, about 90 per cent of the population seems, for some reason, to be incapable of separating paper from plastic, glass and metal, or of placing recyclable items in their appropriate space. Apart from the small green or blue containers, I have, for example, also seen those large rolling containers with live samples of what is supposed to go in them glued to the cover, and yet people were still unable to get it right. How this can be is an utter mystery to me.

Pots, pans, pads and pets

Then we have the notorious and unfortunately common cases of people throwing rotten foods, miscellaneous garbage, menstruation pads, electric appliances, pots and pans, dead pets, old plumbing and whatnot into the recycling bin and often try to hide their misdeeds under the rest. This is beyond my comprehension because I think that, generally speaking, people cherish a favourable public image of themselves, embrace lofty ideas, fancy new gadgets and enjoy the fruits of technological innovation, but then, in stark contrast to all these pretensions, are unable to manage their recycling properly and, on top of it, nonchalantly burden those who collect their waste with their omissions—that’s pathetic, ludicrous and brings an entire society into disrepute.

There is a saying amongst my colleagues that goes, “The messier the recycling bin, the messier the household it comes from, and the people who run it.” I say no more.

Sorry for being so harsh, but what can one think of people who are too lazy, too careless or too obtuse to carry out the most rudimentary and simple of tasks any minimally-educated human being ought to be able to perform: following easy recycling instructions and separating paper from the rest? If even such simple basics don’t work, what will?

So, as you can see, not all is well with the local recycling project, and it’s not because there are not enough well-organized and -equipped collecting companies, nor is there a lack of processing centres. No, the root of the problem lies with you, the citizenry, who treats recycling containers as garbage bins or depositories for just about anything, and whose casual disposal of all items often form towering sculptures (I respect your artistic aspirations, but they’re clearly out of place here!). You may also think that sorting is the collector’s task, but it is not—in addition to driving and collecting, it has become our task because you don’t do your part and we are not allowed to dump a total mess at the processing plant. Adequate sorting of recyclable material makes collecting swift and efficient and benefits the whole recycling enterprise as well as yourself, knowing you did the best you could instead of shuffling down the lane of mediocrity. After all, what special exertion does it take to put a vertical divider (pick one up at your local Éco-quartier, or probe your creativity) in your container? Put some material to the right and some to the left. It’s that simple.

Civility, respect and intelligence

Not living up to the minimal requirements of recycling can only be excused if you are blind and paralyzed, completely ignorant of English or French, unacquainted with the concept because you’re from Mars and Martians don’t recycle, intellectually impaired, or oblivious to the dissimilar nature of paper, glass, plastic and metal. If you don’t know how to recycle properly, you go to any of Montreal’s Éco-quartier centres (if you don’t know where they are, check the Yellow Pages or the official Web page of Montreal). If recycling is not your concern, then don’t do it, but don’t deliver a mess in dirty, broken containers instead. If you care about recycling, please, in the name of civility, inform yourself and do it accurately.

In the meantime, I suggest that you at least:

Sort better and don’t use your container as a garbage, but as intended; give your departed pet a respectful farewell; don’t let hundreds of newspapers soak up all the rain they can; if you use translucent plastic bags, use one bag for paper and another one for the rest; note that milk and juice paper cans and similar items don’t go with paper but with plastics, glass and metal; fold or cut your boxes down to a manageable size; abstain from giving us your unsorted or opaque plastic bags, messy rolling containers, Styrofoam, waxed carton, old pottery, electric appliances or kitchen utensils; spare us bins so decrepit that we consider them waste (get a new one!); obtain an additional container if you have more recycling than one container can take; follow traffic regulations and don’t park your car directly at the corner of an already narrow street; don’t count on us to pick up your late bin once your street has been cleared; and, maybe once a year, clean your recycling container.

I suggest further that municipalities inform their citizens regularly and better by means of pamphlets introducing recycling resources and procedure; Éco-quartier employees everywhere provide dividers, additional containers and detailed how-to descriptions; and that rolling containers become mandatory at least for buildings with more than three units.

Learn from the Germans

If the people in charge of urban planning think that it is too difficult to accommodate rolling containers, consider the country of my origin, Germany, which has a much higher population density and much more complex urban landscapes but still offers rolling containers for each house (at least one each for garbage and another for paper, glass, plastic and metal). How do they manage?

Oh, and by the way: in case you have to wait behind a recycling truck, rest assured that we are aware of you and are working as quickly as we can—don’t honk your horn or yell at us, this will only make it worse. Instead, use the time for a little relaxation—it puts things back into perspective and is good for you! And if, one day, you have difficulties retrieving your bin or find it in some unfavourable condition, know that this can happen to particularly disgusting cases. Last but not least, let me extend my heart-felt gratitude to those few of you for whom orderly recycling is a way of life—your concern helps all of us.

If you still don’t care for changing your ways, I guess I’ll have to live with you. And rest assured, I’ll be taking your recyclables anyway, but I will be feeling sorry for you and mustering all my empathy to resist the urge to feed your bin to the compactor.

Thank you for your attention.