Marché McSween …

Marché McSween, a business that cares about the environment (October 2016)
by Benoit Bleau, translation : Sheila Lord

Since purchasing the business in May 2011 Lory Vansteene and Claude McSween have made a big effort to blend into our community. For them, buying locally has been a priority. Whenever possible they choose to encourage local producers even if they have to go outside their own comfort zone. For a grocer it is much easier to deal with wholesalers even if he is well aware that products can be travelling for hundreds or even thousands of kilometres before they reach the grocer’s shop. As Madame Vansteene told us «Favoring local suppliers implies also reducing our ecological footprint and promoting the economy of our community, but we did not want to stop there. We are shocked each week to see six containers of garbage sent off to the landfill site. We wanted to find a way of reducing that too.»

After categorizing their garbage, they realized that the major part consisted of cardboard packaging, over 80% of the total volume! In the spring they acquired a cardboard bale press which permits easy transport to recycling centers. On average they produce four 65 lb bales per week, which has enabled them to reduce the number of containers to just one. With regard to plastic, most of this is recuperated by Sobey’s and styrofoam or polystyene trays, identified by the number 6, are being replaced more and more by recycled or recyclable plastic or cardboard. They also give a second life to plastic containers and buckets by giving them to the St-Romain Second Hand Shop to be sold at a good price.

Their next challenge is the composting of organic material. In earlier bulletins I have mentioned that provincial regulation will prohibit the use of this material as landfill starting in 2020. So it is urgent that local solutions be put in place for the treatment of this category of refuse. At present, imperfect fruits and vegetables (those which are no longer fresh or are damaged) are given to local small breeders. «That’s one thing less to go to the garbage dump, and pigs couldn’t care less about non-aesthetic fruits and vegetables.» Lory Vansteene added, laughing.

Well done, Lory, Claude and the whole Marché McSween team for the action you are taking towards caring for the environment. We hope that many other community businesses will follow your example.

Write to us about other fine efforts you hear about, so that we can let everybody else know about them. The protection of the environment is the concern of everybody. benoit.bleau@gmail.com