Summary

Problem Summary

Montreal faces an issue with its organic waste management, accounting for 55% of landfilled waste in the city. Despite public statements and funding, the city has yet to significantly reduce organic waste and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). Moreover, with the rise in population and economic activities, controlling the waste in the city is tougher, making the situation worse. The main contributors are buildings with more than eight units that do not have organic waste collection systems. Although Montreal has stated its goals of reducing GHG emissions and food waste, the action plans must include basic steps such as source separation. The lack of separation and overall education results in contaminated food waste, ending in landfills. The lack of sustainable practices for apartment buildings in Montreal is a crucial issue that needs to be addressed to improve the situation and promote practices that reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfills and the GHG created from it. The key identified stakeholders are the residents of apartment buildings, building owners, local government, waste management facilities and environmental organizations.

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Figure 1: Greenhouse Gas Emission Breakdown in Quebec (Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, 2020

Solution Summary

Solution for the organic waste collection in apartments with more than eight units will help divert organic waste away from Montreal's landfills, thus helping the city with its environmental sustainability goals and helping economically with less need for landfills. The solution will be divided into 4 phases, phase 1 will run for three months, and the subsequent phases will run for six months each. This solution is derived from the success of Milan, Italy's zero waste program (Condamine, 2020) and Flander, Belgium's organic waste reduction program(Allen, 2012). Phase 1 will consist of educational and awareness campaigns to teach the residents about environmental sustainability and the need for an organic waste collection program and educate them on best practices. Phase two will already roll out in some boroughs with a partial organic waste program already in place. The next phase will roll out in the city, where there is an organic waste collection for units with less than eight units. Even in boroughs without organic waste collection, the last phase will be rolled out to the whole city. This solution will need a policy change and funding from the government.

Practical Humility Clause

While this solution for organic waste collection in buildings with more than eight units is driven by the best practices in other cities worldwide and used before and after surveys to ensure the program's success, there still are some uncertainties. One assumption is that residents will be willing to change their behaviour and current garbage disposal methods, but we might get some resistance from some residents and building management. To address this, we will target educational and awareness campaigns designed to address the issues and needs of all the communities and stakeholders involved. Another assumption is that organic waste processing facilities can handle increased organic waste. We might face some capacity issues in those processing facilities. An infrastructure assessment will be done at each phase to ensure facilities can process the increased organic waste.

Detailed Explanation

Phase 1

Phase 1 of the program is educational and awareness campaigns for the new and improved organic waste collection system for apartment buildings with more than eight units. This phase will be rolled out three months before the new collection system to all the boroughs, with a collection system only available to small buildings and houses. This phase aims to raise awareness among residents, owners and management of the apartment buildings about the importance and necessity of organic waste separation in those buildings. This campaign will also communicate information about the subsequent phases and timelines of the whole project.

Surveys will be conducted to assess the impact of the educational and awareness campaigns before and after this phase. These surveys will asses the following metrics:

Awareness: This metric will assess the awareness of the targeted buildings' residents, owners and management. Awareness will include the impact of garbage on the environment, the impact of organic waste mixed with garbage in landfills, and the current situation of the Montreal waste management system.
Behaviour: This metric will help understand different stakeholders' behaviour towards garbage separation. One or more stakeholders might behave negatively towards the separation since throwing everything in one bin is easy and has fewer systems to worry about for maintenance. This will help to understand if the behaviour of the stakeholders has changed positively towards waste separation efforts.