City can’t yet say how much purple bags reduce burned garbage

Peter Black – Local Journalism initiative reporter
peterblack@qctonline.com

The purple plastic bag has become a familiar and ever-increasing presence on the streets of Quebec City on garbage day. But after more than a year of operation, city officials won’t or can’t say how much the household waste program has reduced the amount of garbage burned at the municipal incinerator.

The question became an issue last week following an effort by Le Soleil to get data on the impact of the purple bag program, whereby the bags are collected with the other usual refuse during the regular weekly city garbage collection.

The bags are separated out at the organic matter recovery centre, a complex adjacent to the incinerator, where con- tents are emptied from the bags and turned into a liquid pulp that is piped underground to the new biomethanization plant.

The overall goal of the program is to produce energy from biowaste and to reduce the amount of material burned in the incinerator. The city says some 75 per cent of residents are participating in the program.

A reporter from Le Soleil tasked the city for figures concerning tonnage of mate- rial incinerated since January 2022, before the purple bag program started operating, and the beginning of 2024 when it was in full swing.

After a few exchanges where the wrong numbers were provided, Le Soleil reported the city “refused to disclose these figures, citing an article of the Access to Information Act that deals with industrial and commercial secrecy, as well as two articles that exempt ‘advice and recommendations (made to a public body)’ from access to information.”

This stance provoked Limoilou Coun. Jackie Smith to issue a statement on July 31, saying, “Despite the protests of various environmental groups, the city built a $200-million biomethanization plant to reduce the amount of organic matter sent to the incinerator. We will not go back, but the city must at least have the decency to present the figures to its population.”

Smith, whose district contains both the incinerator and biomethanization plant, said, “It is always difficult to have clear data collected using appropriate methods when it comes to the incinerator. We look forward to the creation of an independent scientist position mandated to monitor environmental policies in Quebec City.”

Smith said, “We need to have a plan for the eventual closure of this incinerator that is polluting our air and to achieve this, the city absolutely must have a vision and a plan to reduce waste at the source.”

A city spokesperson, following up on the controversy, said in other media reports more information on the purple bag program will be available in the fall. Wendy Whittom said a scale is to be installed at the sorting centre and the purple bags will be weighed separately. She estimated the household waste accounts for about 10 per cent of garbage collected.

The biomethanization plant has a total capacity of 182,600 tons a year of food and residue from waste water treatment, according to city information. In a Radio-Canada report, Energir says it has already generated some 1.5 million cubic metres of natural gas from the facility. The city hopes to produce 10 million cubic metres annually.