Sherbrooke aiming to ban garbage disposals, but delays single-use bag ban

In a demonstration of the fact that not every government discussion these days has to do with global pandemics, Sherbrooke’s City Council opened the door to a new bylaw banning garbage disposals on Monday night.

Following in the footsteps of other municipalities like Quebec City, Gatineau, Saguenay et Trois-rivières, the ban was proposed in light of the fact that the machines waste water and attract vermin.

“Although the use of a garbage disposal may seem to have slight advantages, it is undeniable that these bring their own disadvantages for the owner and for the community, said Karine Godbout, president of the city’s environment committee. “They use of a large quantity of drinking water, which goes against the Quebec strategy for saving drinking water, they attract vermin in homes and in the sewer network and they increase the costs of water treatment and cleaning of sewer lines.”

Rather than grind food up and run it down the drain, Godbout said that it makes much more sense for people to just take advantage of the municipal compost program.

Although the bylaw has yet to be officially drafted or approved by the council, the aim is to have the ban come into effect for May 1 of 2021. Because of the burden they place on the sewer system, those people who already have a garbage disposal installed will be asked to remove them by that time.

Meanwhile, the ban on single-use plastic bags in local businesses that was set to come into effect later this month has been put off in light of the current restrictions of the COVID-19 crisis. Although the new bylaw will still come into effect as planned on April 22, the associated penalties will not be applied until a later date.

“Once the date of application of the regulatory obligations is known, a communication campaign will be set up to inform the population and the merchants who will then have about a month to prepare for the application of the regulation,” Godbout said, encouraging the population to continue to use reusable bags in the businesses that allow them so long as they bag their purchaces themselves and wash the bags between uses to help prevent the spread of the virus.