A Montreal neighbourhood’s garbage cans are getting a new look.
Roughly 30 garbage cans in the Plateau neighbourhood are now outfitted with a metal bracket-like shelf around them in order to provide easier access to refundable bottles and cans for those known as “binners,” who collect the objects in order to survive financially.
According to Les Valoristes, a group behind the project, many people cut their hands while rummaging through the trash.
The project, the group hopes, will also help reduce landfill waste.
“For very urbanized areas like downtown Montreal, it’s a solution that works,” Sidney Ribaux, the executive director of the non-profit environmental group Equiterre, told CTV Montreal.
But he added that water bottles should also be made refundable because they are often tossed in the garbage, too.
“Water bottles are not going to end up in those little racks around the garbage cans because they have no value for binners,” Ribaux said.
Similarly styled garbage bins have been in use elsewhere in Montreal, as well as in Vancouver and various European cities.
