Our sorting centers

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Société VIA operates 5 state-of-the-art sorting centers in Quebec to process recyclable materials.

Société VIA stands out for the quality of the products it generates. That’s why our team has invested several million dollars in the development of its sorting equipment in recent years.

We are proud to say that our main sorting centers are at the cutting edge of innovation in sorting recyclable materials, enabling us to provide our customers with the highest quality products.

Lévis sorting center

A pioneer in selective collection, Société VIA has been the operator since 1991.

Annual tonnage: 49,000 tonnes
Employees: 100

Home to Société VIA’s head office.
Ultra-modern center, the fruit of the development of our expertise.

Rivière-du-Loup sorting center

Société VIA has been the operator since 1999.

Annual tonnage: 20,500 tonnes
Employees: 45

Well established in Bas-Saint-Laurent.
Excellent reputation for quality of work and finished products.

Quebec City sorting center

Société VIA has been the operator since 2009.

Annual tonnage: 55,000 tonnes
Employees: 75

A partnership with Quebec City.
Consulting role for center optimization.

Saguenay sorting center

Société VIA has been the operator since May 2020.

Annual tonnage: 20,000 tonnes
Employees: 44

Work in the heart of Saguenay.
The sorting center is currently in transition to a new plant.

Lachine sorting center

Société VIA has been the operator since October 2022.

Annual tonnage: 90,000 tonnes
Employees: 130

Serves all of Montreal’s West Island.
A hundred new jobs created for people living with functional limitations.

Sorting materials

5

sorting centers

Every day, our 5 sorting centers receive collections from recycling trucks, which have collected the contents of over 40,000 blue wheeled bins!

40 000

blue bins

The contents of each truck are deposited in the sorting center’s reception area.

6 minutes

25

Everything is sorted in less than 6 minutes into 25 different categories(office paper, newsprint, mixed paper, corrugated cardboard, plastic #1, aluminium, etc.).

1 ton

Each category of material is accumulated and pressed into bales of around 1 ton.

+ more

500 bales

purity
near

99%

The solid expertise of our employees and our state-of-the-art equipment enable Société VIA to produce more than 500 bales daily, with purity levels approaching 99%.

All bales are shipped by category to our recycling partners, completing the recycling loop!

Detailed sorting stages at the plant

1

Purification

A team of pre-sorters removes all non-recyclable items that could cause equipment blockages.

We also remove household hazardous waste (HHW) such as lithium batteries, chemicals or bulky items that could cause safety problems for facilities or employees.

2

Mechanical separation

Mechanical separators sort recyclables by category: paper, cardboard, plastic and metal containers, glass.

This is where 2D material, such as cardboard and paper, is separated from 3D material, such as plastic and metal containers.

3

Optical sorting

Containers and fibrous materials pass through a series of compressed-air optical sorters. These optical scanners can precisely detect the type of material passing through their optical beams at any given moment.

Compressed air jets are used to project objects towards the appropriate sorting line. This ultra-modern equipment can sort up to 600 materials every minute!

4

Quality control

Our teams of sorters do an outstanding job of quality control to ensure the purity of every category of recyclable material.

It’s this manual sorting that enables us to achieve our very high quality standards, of which we’re extremely proud.

5

Bundling

Each category of material is stored in a bin. When the latter is filled, the contents are automatically directed to the press to be compressed and baled.

6

Shipping

The bales are transported to our recycling partners to complete the recycling loop.

The excellent quality of our shipped products enables our partners to produce consumer goods of equally high quality.