Quebec to pay recycling costs for student masks
The issue of how to dispose of the obligatory face masks worn by Quebec high-school students — and how that disposal will be paid for — came to the fore on Tuesday.
No less than 500,000 of the masks are used daily in provincial high schools. On Tuesday, after hitherto providing no details on how the used masks would be dealt with, Quebec Education Minister Jean-françois Roberge invited schools to contact recycling companies to deal with the problem.
The minister's press attaché said expenses incurred “for the purchase and recycling of these masks” would be reimbursed to school service centres.
“Fortunately, our young people are aware of environmental issues. We're confident the masks won't be found ... (polluting) the environment,” said Geneviève Côté. “There are companies, many of them Quebec firms ... that offer the recuperation and treatment of disposable masks. We are certainly inviting schools to use these services.”
On Jan. 6, the Legault government announced it would supply two masks a day to high-school teachers and students beginning Jan. 18. However, the government was silent on what would happen to the 85 million masks that would have been used in schools by the end of the academic year.
Nicolas Prévost, president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d'établissement d'enseignement (FQDE), said the recuperation of the masks should have been figured out well before students returned to class.
Only certain schools have recycling bins for the masks, he said, and young people are “not at all” comfortable throwing their masks into garbage containers.
Prévost also complained that the masks being distributed were too large for the faces of younger students. “Could we not have planned a little in advance?”
On Monday, Liberal MNA Frantz Benjamin estimated the recovery of used masks in high schools would cost between $30 million and $35 million and that without financial support many schools cannot afford to be ecologically responsible in dealing with the issue.
Québec solidaire MNA Ruba Ghazal on Tuesday launched a petition asking the government to dispose of the masks in an ecologically responsible manner and that any recycling be done locally.
The Education Ministry said it had provided schools with a list of firms specializing in recycling.
Last May, environmental groups warned disposal of masks would become a source of pollution and urged the use of reusable masks.
Disposal of masks are usually a mix of synthetic fibres and cellulose, an elastic and a piece of metal. They can represent a threat to wildlife and cause damage to water-treatment centres should they end up in the sewer system.