Following its latest municipal council meeting and a previous presentation in March 2022, the City of Montreal held an extraordinary municipal council meeting to discuss the recycling crisis more in-depth.

For the past 11 months, the City of Montreal has been facing an issue of overcapacity and over contamination of bale in many of its recycling plants. The Official Opposition has asked of the Plante Administration to urgently act in the face of this crisis. Contaminated bales have been piling up outside of Montreal, while waste has been sent to landfills. Organic waste facilities and composting plants have also seen their operations stalled, in the past two months.

Mayor Valérie Plante assured that the administration is working on the issue and takes it seriously. The city continues its operation of collection services and recycling treatments across the different boroughs.

The City of Montreal, additionally, discussed its contract with Ricova Services Inc., reminding the officials and representatives of the recommendations made by Montreal’s Inspector General in a report assessing Montreal’s co-operation with the enterprise.

Recommendations made by Montreal’s Inspector General included for the City of Montreal to terminate its contract with Ricova Services Inc. resulting from call for tenders, and to denounce the enterprise and past incidents from the co-operation to Quebec’s Anti-Corruption Unit. It was also recommended that Ricova Services Inc. in accordance with the provisions of the by-laws for contract management, be registered in the Registre des personnes inadmissibles of the City of Montreal, for a period of five years.