Canada/The battle against litter in a small Quebec town

What's going on in Prévost? This small town in the Laurentians is among those taking action against the climate crisis: it has even convinced giants like McDonald's and Couche-Tard to get on board. We went to see how they did it.

What strikes you on arriving in Prévost is how familiar the town of 14,000 inhabitants seems. A busy road divides it in two, and large chain restaurants, supermarkets and small shops stretch for miles: the layout is reminiscent of a model applied 100 times over.

Except that, for some time now, Prévost has been attracting attention for the originality of its environmental actions.

Firstly, because it is the only city in Quebec to force people to pay a contribution on certain single-use plastic products, and secondly, because it is about to launch a municipal pilot project for returnable crockery for its restaurants. Above all, it was the first city in the province to adopt a decarbonization bylaw for its buildings (and to be briefly sued by Energir).

Where did this breeding ground for green ideas come from? It was the 2000 film An Inconvenient Truth that raised the consciousness of notary-turned-mayor Paul Germain. When he was first elected in 2017, he was joined by a council that was also eager to take action on the environment. The stars were aligned.

We set ourselves targets of a 50% reduction in GHGs by 2030. But that had to come with action. Setting targets and then doing nothing is a waste of time and a waste of people's time. I think 70-80% of our citizens are as concerned about the environment as we are, but they don't have the tools to make smarter choices.

A quote from Paul Germain, Mayor of Prévost

Pay (a little) for your waste

One of the most daring projects to reduce waste is that of eco-contribution. The concept is to offer an alternative to single-use items, then charge those who decide to consume them anyway.

The regulation covers water bottles under 750 ml, takeaway coffee cups, plastic utensils and tablecloths, and windscreen washer fluid cans.

In concrete terms, a Prévost business wishing to sell small-format water bottles must therefore charge 10 cents per bottle and have a source of drinking water nearby for its customers.

And to sell cans of windshield washer fluid, you have to offer a bulk windshield washer station. This is mandatory.

Give and take

25 businesses have adopted the eco-contribution system. It was a tough road for some, but everyone got on board in the end.

That's our strength: we come up with strategies based on negotiation and persuasion. I'm going to offer to subsidize businesses for windshield washer stations, just as we subsidized businesses to provide water to citizens.

A quote from Frédérick Marceau, Director of Prévost's Environment Department

The system is self-sufficient. The money used to help businesses comes directly from the eco-contribution and has nothing to do with taxes.

An idea that pays off

The city raises an average of $55,000 a year from eco-contribution. The funds are also used to subsidize projects presented by citizens or merchants.

This is the case of Café Kohi, which received financial assistance to help deploy its idea of reusable glasses. Customers of the roasting house pay a $1 deposit and decide whether to return the jar or keep it.

Owner Daniel Moranville puts a figure on the results: "We estimate that we've saved between 12,000 and 15,000 paper cups. Each discarded paper cup cost us 10 or 20 cents. We don't have that cost anymore. So yes, we're saving money and waste.

But is that enough?

Other programs exist to reduce Prévost's waste:

• Drop-off points to avoid detours to the ecocenter

• City-managed returnable crockery soon in restaurants

• Opening of municipal compost and recycling collection to businesses

And the results? Not so clear. The city doesn't know to what extent it has been able to reduce its garbage management bill, which exceeds one million annually. But it now has data that other municipalities don't: the quantity of certain types of waste on its territory.

It's frightening," says Mayor Paul Germain. In almost 18 months, 300,000 coffee glasses were consumed in Prévost.

What's most surprising is that the administration decides to set up projects without necessarily promising their profitability.

That's what kills action. The problem is that finances are too closely linked with the environment, and we're looking for environmental projects to be calculable and profitable. That's one vision, but it's not mine, and it's not the one currently held by our Board.

A quote from Frédérick Marceau, Prévost's Director of Environmental Services

Prévost has also started lending its marquees, tables and other equipment to citizens free of charge via the Quebec-based application Partage Club. With the money from the eco-contribution, it has also paid for subscriptions for 250 people.

Stop waiting

In Quebec, many cities are looking at ways to reduce their carbon emissions.

Last fall, Prévost was the first to ban certain types of natural gas or renewable natural gas use in new residential and institutional buildings, excluding gas stoves and barbecues.

Énergir, which distributes the vast majority of this fossil fuel gas in the province, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court to overturn the ban.

As a result, the city added a clarification to its by-law: it still prohibits the replacement of an end-of-life gas appliance, unless the new equipment runs on bi-energy and 100% renewable natural gas. The legal battle is over, and Prévost has been able to move forward.

A few other cities, like Montreal, have adopted similar regulations and can benefit from their acquired rights. But today, they might have had difficulty proceeding because the Ministry of Energy now has to give the green light first.

We could have waited until after Montreal, but that would have been too late," explains Frédérick Marceau. We made a conscious decision seven years ago, when the mayor returned, that we would stop waiting for others.

Prévost is no longer waiting. She's well aware that her influence has limits, but she doesn't seem discouraged. Her environmental plan contains 160 actions.

We won't change the world with 14,000 people. On the other hand, if we succeed in creating projects, communicating them, sharing them and getting other cities to copy these projects, well then, through our work, we're going to have a wider impact.

A quote from Frédérick Marceau, Director of Prévost's Environment Department

Source:ici.radio-canada.ca/

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