Westmount excels in springtime hazardous waste collection

Many household, automotive and gardening products are considered even more harmful to the environment if they are improperly discarded.

Thus, to reduce pollution, Westmount provides twice-yearly special collection days for the safe disposal of many of these materials. However, the City does not yet have any permanent facility for disposing of hazardous waste.

"In proportion to the size of the population, the volume is high here," said André Leclair, a chemist with the environmental services company CleanHarbors, which was overseeing the collection. "It's been a good-sized collection today," he added.

By the end of Saturday, the CleanHarbors crew expected to have gathered as much as 11 tonnes of chemicals, including paints, solvents, pesticides and discarded medications in large bins set up in the Westmount Public Library parking lot. They also took in junked electronics, such as old desktop computers, laptops, photocopiers, cell phones, VCRs and televisions sets.

Used clothing was also accepted. According to Leclair, Westmount does better than some other environmentally-conscious Montreal-area communities, in terms of its HHW collection. "The other day we were in Dorval and there were eight tonnes," he said. "That should give you an idea."

The City of Westmount advises that hazardous household products should under no circumstances go in the regular garbage nor down the drain, but should instead be brought to the HHW collection.

In addition to the above-mentioned materials, other hazardous substances accepted on Saturday were cleaners, batteries (including car batteries) antifreeze, motor oil, propane tanks, or anything marked corrosive, reactive or flammable.

Leclair's duty was to make sure that any substance that might react with another remained carefully separated in a different storage area. Chemicals and substances not accepted were appliances, engines, tires, CFCs and all commercial waste.

While there were many old computers, monitors and printers, the complete list of old electronics that piled high and eventually had to be fork lifted into a cube truck included camcorders, cameras, video game systems, fax machines, scanners, modems, and Walkmans. The City emphasizes that this service is not available at collection sites in neighbouring communities.

Unwanted clothing that could be brought in last Saturday or on other special collection days includes fabric or leather. All articles in good condition are redistributed and worn again. If not, they are shredded and the fibers recycled to produce new items.

Apart from the special collection days, a limited number of HHW products are accepted at specified locations. Paints and stains, but not paint thinners, are taken in at RONA hardware stores (call first to confirm), while car batteries and used motor oil are accepted at Canadian Tire outlets. Some propane sellers accept used tanks for recycling.

The City of Westmount has three depots for used dry-cell batteries: the Public Works yard on Bethune Street, the Westmount Arena at 4675 St. Catherine Street, and Fire Station 76 at 19 Stanton Street. The City has special orange bags for the disposal of dry-cell batteries. They can be picked up at the Public Works Department.