As snow melts, Montreal to prioritize downtown cleanup

As winter recedes in Montreal, a different kind of buildup is being revealed across the city: piles of garbage, debris and dirt left behind by months of snow.

City officials say this year’s spring cleanup is proving more difficult than years past despite starting earlier than normal, with operations launching on March 16.

“Downtown, for us, it’s a priority because downtown is the is the image of Montreal itself,” said Luis Miranda, Montreal’s executive committee member responsible for cleanliness

Though, he also noted that the issue isn’t isolated to one neighbourhood and crews are working across all boroughs.

“Everywhere needs attention,” Miranda said.

A longer and harsher winter is partly to blame, he told CityNews. With snowfall beginning as early as November and continuing steadily throughout the season, garbage became buried under layers of snow, only now resurfacing as temperatures rise.

That same winter also required heavy use of salt and abrasives, which is now slowing down cleanup efforts. The city’s fleet of 50 mechanical sweepers are filling up faster than usual, Miranda said, forcing crews to make multiple passes over the same areas.

In some cases, what would normally take one pass now takes four.

“A lot of the times you can’t even come back to where it is left off because the time schedule is already past,” Miranda said.

Experts say the problem also points to deeper structural issues in how waste is handled.

Fabien-Kenzo Sato, the general manager of the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal said reliance on black garbage bags — especially in dense neighbourhoods — contributes to the mess. Without closed bins, bags are more easily torn open by animals, wind or passing vehicles.

While closed waste bins are permitted in all of Montreal’s boroughs, only a select amount of them provide them to residents. Downtown’s Ville-Marie borough, doesn’t provide Montrealers with garbage bins, for example.

“It can be difficult to have three types of bins in a more dense area because you don’t have any place to store them,” Sato said.

He suggests alternatives like closed-bin systems or centralized drop-off points, similar to those used in many European cities, to reduce the amount of loose garbage on streets.

Public trash can design is also part of the issue, Sato said. Open public bins can allow waste to spill out in windy conditions or become buried under snow, only to reappear in the spring thaw.

City officials, meanwhile, are also urging residents to do their part — including using sturdier garbage bags and respecting collection schedules.

Putting trash out too early, they say, also increases the chances it will be torn open by animals before pickup.

“The garbage, it’s everybody’s business,” Miranda said.