Case study: Increasing waste diversion to reduce landfill use

Summary

To reduce the amount of bulky waste sent to landfill, the City of Drummondville, Québec, has developed an at-home, appointment-based collection service for divertible items. The pilot project implemented in 2020 included the collection of furniture, mattresses, electronic devices, and construction, renovation and demolition (CRD) waste in order to reuse or properly recycle these items. Based on the project’s positive results, the City permanently implemented the service in 2023.

“The pilot project was such a success, and the response of the population was so positive that we decided to maintain the service. We’re now looking at the possibility of adding new categories of divertible items.”

– Marie-Ève Vadnais, Director, Environmental Department, City of Drummondville.

Context

Located in the Centre-du-Québec region, halfway between Montreal and Québec City, the City of Drummondville has a population of nearly 85,000. After significant efforts in the past few years to raise the awareness of good waste management to its population, the City felt the need to take it a step further to reduce the amount of bulky waste sent to landfill.

Challenge

Noting that 70 percent of the bulky waste put to the curbside during quarterly collection drives had the potential to be repaired, reused, transformed or recycled, the challenge for Drummondville was to divert as much of this waste as possible to improve its waste management performance, extend the lifecycle of landfill sites, and generate economic and environmental benefits.

Approach

Through an easy-to-use electronic reservation platform, citizens can register and make an appointment for the type of waste collection of their choice. Then, the addresses of the registrants are extracted to determine the optimal collection route to pick up this divertible waste. The collected waste is then reused or recycled by local partners.

With this new service, Drummondville aimed to:

• Reduce the amount of waste by 2.5 percent during the pilot project and by 5 percent after full-scale implementation.
• Identify and monitor success factors to ensure the cost efficiency of the social economy business and the regional eco-centre.
• Achieve sufficient savings to be able to end one of the three annual bulky waste collection drives.

Results

Within the first year of providing an appointment-based collection service to its residents, the City of Drummondville diverted 245 tonnes of waste from landfill, including 23.5 tonnes of bulky items, generating $18,000 in savings based on per-tonne landfill costs in 2021.

Additionally, the service achieved:

• Nearly 30 tonnes of divertible waste collected in 2022, a 10% increase compared to 2021.
• The elimination of one of the three annual bulky waste collection drives, representing annual savings of nearly $30,000.
• A decrease in GHG emissions and fuel savings through the improved design of collection routes.

These positive results led to the permanent implementation of the service in 2023.

Benefits

“Not only are there environmental benefits, but there are also economic benefits to better managing our waste,” said Marie-Ève Vadnais, Director, Environmental Department, City of Drummondville.

The amount of bulky items and CRD waste diverted from landfill will increase the lifecycle of landfills, reducing GHG emissions, contamination and pollution. Additionally, working with two local, social enterprises and a private waste diversion business promotes the development of a circular economy and community support.

As for the residents of Drummondville, they can now divert or recycle their waste more easily.

Lessons learned

Throughout the process of developing and implementing this service, three main lessons emerged.

1. The need to have recognized partnerships with service agreements, while choosing local organizations that have the capacity to collect and divert waste.
2. Implementing a communication plan with ongoing promotions is crucial to encourage the population to use the new service.
3. Choosing an online reservation platform that is user-friendly for both the population and the people in charge of registrations.

Testimonial

“This project has raised the awareness of the population about waste. Not only are there environmental benefits, but there are also economic benefits to better managing our waste,” said Marie-Ève Vadnais. “The population was informed through a large-scale awareness campaign that we carried out, which had impacts on the total number of tonnes of collected waste, and also on the number of users of the eco-centre”

Next steps

Permanently implemented in 2023, the appointment-based collection service for divertible waste will be expanding in the coming months. The City is already looking into new diversion streams and partners who can recycle or reuse other types of items, such as refrigerators and air conditioners, while ensuring the long-term capacity of current partners to provide waste collection and diversion services.