The construction industry is ready to tackle its waste problem, believes Recyc-Québec, which presented on Wednesday possible solutions developed with stakeholders in the sector, which generates 32% of everything that Quebec sends to landfill.
“We can see that the fruit is ripe,” declared the president and CEO of the Société québécoise de récupération et de recyclage (Recyc-Québec), Emmanuelle Géhin, in a meeting with a handful of journalists.
“There is an awareness of the industry, currently, which, every day, on construction sites, realizes the quantity of waste [that it] sends to landfill,” she says.
The quantity of residues generated by the so-called construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) sector has been increasing since this data was compiled specifically in 2015; and the proportion of what is recovered declines.
Of the 3.5 million tonnes of residue generated in 2021, 47% went directly to landfill sites, the most recent data available show.
The remaining 53% was sent to a sorting center, but only 261,000 tonnes ended up in recycling, with the majority being diverted to landfill or energy recovery.
This means that only 7.5% of construction waste was recycled.
“It makes no sense to send materials to landfill when they could be reused,” says Ms. Géhin.
A committee of experts from the construction industry, the recovery and recycling industry as well as municipal and union circles looked into the issue with Recyc-Québec, at the request of the Minister of the Environment , the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, and delivered nine recommendations.
Half aim to “document the value chain” of residues: targeting possible outlets in each region; carry out a study of the impacts of new management methods, such as presorting materials; evaluate options to increase the amount of waste diverted from landfill, such as tax incentives; and compare the costs and impacts of different approaches.
The committee also calls for “acting upstream”, by including clauses in calls for tenders and permits forcing a greater proportion of residues to be diverted from landfill, and to “equip stakeholders to facilitate the transition to landfill”. ‘action’, by offering training and financial assistance.
All of these recommendations should be implemented over the next two years, Recyc-Québec predicts.
From its first meetings, the committee of experts had discussed regulatory solutions, such as the imposition of additional fees for the burial of residues sent directly to landfill, without going through a sorting center.
“The main element that undermines the recovery and recycling of CRD residues is the landfill rate,” which is lower than the costs of other solutions, explains Francis Vermette, vice-president of operations and development at Recyc -Quebec.
“It really limits the possibilities of implementing recovery and recycling on a large scale,” he says.
Certain obstacles slowing down the recycling of certain materials could also be countered by a modification of the current regulations, adds Mr. Vermette, giving the example of the use of asphalt shingles in the paving of roads, which is encountered for At the moment there are… regulatory obstacles.
“The Ministry is currently thinking, [it] has taken note and is working on this,” says Emmanuelle Géhin, emphasizing that Recyc-Québec has no regulatory power.
Minister Charette’s office did not respond to questions from La Presse on this subject on Wednesday.
These courses of action are viewed favorably by observers of waste-related issues, who however believe that they arrive very late.
“It’s shocking to see that in 2024, we do not have a complete picture of the materials in the CRD sector, even though it is the main generator of waste,” says Amélie Côté, energy reduction analyst. the source at Équiterre.
She welcomes the “short-term timetable” of the proposed measures, and calls for an important place to be given to deconstruction and reuse of materials.
“Regulatory changes will be essential to the success of all these measures,” without which the most committed companies will have to assume additional costs, warns Ms. Côté.
This exercise “should have been done a very long time ago,” also believes Karel Ménard, general director of the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management.
“The solutions for CRD have been known for a long time, it is the poor relation of the management of residual materials,” he says, blaming the lack of regulation, infrastructure, tax incentives and the absence of obligations .
Some proposed measures are not new, adds Mr. Ménard, recalling that the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE) called at the end of its commission of inquiry into “ultimate residues” to address the problem upstream, more than two years ago.