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Rivière-du-Loup, October 27, 2020 – Société VIA announces the start of work on the construction of a new sorting center in Rivière-du-Loup. Located on rue Henry-Percival-Monsarrat in the Saint-Ludger industrial park sector, the site will house a modern building and state-of-the-art equipment, of which the company will be the sole owner. Construction will be carried out by Ronam, a Lévis-based company. Machinex and Pellenc ST will be responsible for manufacturing and installing the sorting systems. Recyclable materials should be able to be transported there as early as June 2021.
MUCH-ANTICIPATED NEWS
The current building leased to the company belongs to the City of Rivière-du-Loup. After several analyses, it became clear that the best solution was to opt for new construction. Excessive investment would have been required to repair, expand and upgrade the existing plant to meet the needs of the sorting center.
With this project, Société VIA aims to continue offering a quality recyclable materials processing service to the citizens served by its Rivière-du-Loup sorting center, as well as ensuring the sustainability of the service for years to come.
IMPROVED MATERIAL QUALITY AND INCREASED PRODUCTION CAPACITY
The new building will house a modern, mechanized sorting process. This investment had become absolutely necessary so that the sorting center could meet the ever-increasing quality standards set by its customers, who purchase a variety of materials, particularly newsprint.
The acquisition of high-tech equipment such as ballistic separators, an eddy current for aluminum sorting and an optical sorter, a robot capable of sorting up to 10 recyclable materials per second, will have a major positive impact on the sorting center’s productivity. This equipment will also make sorting easier on a daily basis.
The capacity of the Rivière-du-Loup sorting center will be increased from 10,000 metric tons to 20,000 metric tons per year. Société VIA has seen its incoming material volumes gradually increase year after year, enabling it to justify this major investment today. In fact, part of the volume destined for the new plant is currently processed at the Lévis plant.
IMPROVED WORKING ENVIRONMENT
A budget of just over $12 million is earmarked for this major project. It will enable Société VIA to pursue its mission of creating and maintaining quality jobs for people living with functional limitations. The Rivière-du-Loup sorting center currently employs around fifty people, and it’s easy to believe that more will be joining the team once the new plant comes on stream.
The Société VIA – Rivière-du-Loup project received a $500,000 contribution from RECYC-QUÉBEC. It was selected as part of a call for proposals coordinated by the Société d’État to improve the quality and quantity of materials, while promoting a better link between the materials leaving the sorting centers for selective collection and the companies that recycle them.
“I’m delighted that RECYC-QUÉBEC’s contribution to Société Via’s modernization project will have such a leverage effect. This support will produce results that are in line with the objectives surrounding the modernization of selective collection, i.e. to improve material quality while promoting recycling here in Quebec. This is a concrete project that will quickly make a difference for both the Quebec economy and the environment, says Sonia Gagné, President and CEO of RECYC-QUÉBEC.
In addition to this contribution, Société VIA can also count on several other valuable partners, including Desjardins, the Fonds d’aide et de relance régionale (FARR) and the Programme d’immobilisation en entrepreneuriat collectif (PIEC).
“We at Desjardins are also very proud to contribute $250,000 to the Société VIA project through our Grand Mouvement Fund. This project is totally in line with our intention to promote and energize sustainable autonomy. The creation of jobs for people living with certain limitations, combined with an increase in the processing capacity of recyclable materials and the strengthening of a circular economy in Rivière-du-Loup, are very concrete gestures that promote a reassuring future for our society”, explains Serge Ferrand, General Manager of Caisse populaire Desjardins de Rivière-du-Loup.
The premises will be brighter, more attractive and more spacious to support these exceptional workers in their daily learning. New rooms, including a training room, will enable employees and the general public to benefit from a wide range of training courses on recycling and healthy lifestyle habits.
As for the more industrial section, a new mechanized process will take over the most arduous sorting tasks to support the workers. The workload will then be easier for them, as they will act as quality controllers.
About Société VIA
Created in 1977, Société VIA is an adapted company specializing in the sorting and recovery of recyclable materials. Its primary mission is to create jobs for people with functional limitations, within a framework of integration and adaptation.
Its expertise enables it, among other things, to supply more than twenty Quebec companies with recyclable materials. Société VIA operates five sorting centers in Lévis, Québec, Rivière-du-Loup, Dégelis and Saguenay, and currently processes 138,000 tonnes per year.
