Brossard, September 14, 2022 – After several weeks of negotiations to regularize the surplus of recyclable materials at the sorting centre in Lachine, Ricova agreed this morning with Montreal municipal authorities to continue efforts to find solutions about the accumulated materials without stopping operations.

“There is not a sufficient market in Quebec for all the recycled volume in the province, particularly because the materials collected at the source are highly contaminated,” says Dominic Colubriale, Ricova’s president and CEO. The tightening of international criteria on the export of recyclable materials led to an unsustainable accumulation of bales that the City had to be informed of.

As early as October 2020, Ricova told the City of Montreal that the equipment installed at the Lachine sorting centre, as well as the process involved in building the plant, was inadequate to meet the volume of materials collected in Montreal. “Since the Lachine centre does not belong to Ricova, it was difficult to resolve the problem as the equipment from Machinex did not perform to the level required to meet the criteria for provisional acceptance. We did not have the power to make decisions, this has blocked us for 18 months”, continues Dominic Colubriale.

Exchanges will continue with the City, in order to find a solution and Ricova will ensure its full cooperation in maintaining the collection and sorting of recyclable materials in Montreal.

“We continue to make progress in the two other sorting centres we operate in RSC Saint-Michel and Ricova Chateauguay. We have been proactive in purchasing and installing the right equipment to meet international standards. We are confident we will achieve this by the end of 2022. We remain positive and confident in finding solutions in collaboration with the City of Montreal,” concludes Dominic Colubriale.

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