Montreal recycling plant

Hustak, A. (2008, March 20). Montreal recycling plant burns after roof collapses; Five-Alarm Blaze. National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post) (Canada). Retrieved July 21, 2011 from LexisNexis Academic.

MONTREAL - The roof of a recycling plant collapsed in Montreal yesterday, sparking a major fire that spewed black smoke over the neighbourhood.

No one was hurt, and firefighters said it was too early to speculate whether the collapse was caused by the weight of snow. But this has become a major concern after several buildings collapsed in recent weeks, and four people died in such incidents last week.

More than 100 firefighters fought to extinguish the stubborn, spectacular blaze that ripped though the sprawling cardboard and paper recycling plant.

The five-alarm fire began after a section of the roof at Econord Gestion Environnement collapsed just before noon and quickly spread through the industrial building that stretches for three city blocks.

"It appears that mercury lights in a storage room where cardboard and papers were piled may have started the fire after the roof fell in," said Aime Charette, chief of operations for the Montreal Fire Department.

It is not known what caused a 15-by-30-metre section of the roof to cave in.

It is believed, however, that heavy snow, made even heavier by yesterday's rain, might have caused the accident.

Three women died last Wednesday in Morin Heights, Que., north of Montreal, when the roof of a food warehouse buckled, and on Sunday, a man in St.-Gerard-des-Laurentides, Que., died when the roof of his house fell in.

As well, the Commission scolaire de Montreal closed all its schools for several days for a complete snow inspection.

Albert Lymburner, an Econord recycling plant operator, had completed his shift and had returned to his home several blocks away from the depot when he saw thick black clouds of smoke swirling around the building.

"I wasn't too worried," he said.

"The fire wasn't in the part of the building where I work; it was at the other end of the depot. We had good evacuation drills, so everybody got out alive," he said. "I'm not sure, though, whether I still have a job to go to. Maybe it's time for me to take a holiday."

Mr. Lymburner said 40 to 50 employees are in the building at any given time.

The fire department said about 15 or 20 employees were in the wing where the roof collapsed and "we got all the people out safely."

Recyclable plastics also were burned in the fire, but environment officials at the scene said there was little danger of significant pollution because 98% of the material burning was paper.

At one point, there was some anxiety because firefighters could not reach several tanks of acetylene and propane gas that were stored in one section of the burning building.

Go back to References

Paper recycling: confused about envelope

Kieran, C. (2009, September 7). Green and confused; Thinking outside the envelope. The Times (London). Retrieved July 21, 2011 from LexisNexis Academic.

Q I regularly receive mail in envelopes bearing exhortations about recycling. Yet my local paper recycling bin has a sign saying "No envelopes". What's going on?

A The glue and those little plastic windows in envelopes are both considered to be rubbish products or "contraries" by the paper recycling trade. Money is the key factor. The greater the amount of envelopes and other non-pure materials included in a batch of paper sent for recycling, the lower the price.

So the paper recycling companies that put bins in supermarket car parks and other locations, plus the cash-hungry councils that collect paper from your doorstep, discourage recycling envelopes.

This is a little ridiculous. Computers were supposed to cut back our use of paper. But the reverse has happened: anyone who is reasonably computer literate can produce a flyer to be stuffed in an envelope and sent out with all the other junk mail. Paper and cardboard make up nearly 30 per cent of the average household waste bin, with each family in the UK using the paper equivalent of about six trees a year.

In recent years more paper has been recycled, not because of heightened concern for the environment but because there would not be enough to go round. Paper manufacturers have had to develop new technologies and recycle more to cope with demand. Bubbles are injected into printed matter: the ink sticks to the bubbles, rises to the surface and is skimmed off. Coloured paper can be turned into white sheets. Directories can emerge as fine writing paper - and envelopes can, at a price, be mixed with cardboard and become packaging.

The UK exports nearly three million tonnes of paper for recycling to China each year.

If you obey the rules and don't put your envelopes in the bin you can of course reuse them by buying stick-on labels: many charities sell them. The really conscientious can tear off the envelope flap and its glue and remove the plastic windows.

Whatever you do, don't send the envelopes to landfill. Contrary to popular belief, paper and print take years to decompose. If you think junk mail is a pain now imagine future generations having to cope with 50-year-old piles of it.

E-mail your eco-dilemmas to greenandconfused@thetimes.co.uk


Go back to References