Montreal just added itself to the list of municipalities that have banned shopping bags. Should Winnipeg join them?

January 1st, 2018 marked a special day in history for Montreal. A bylaw was enacted that officially banned the hand out of single-use plastic bags and biodegradable bags for good, making Montreal the first major Canadian city to do so. Victoria B.C.will enact the same ban starting on Canada day. These actions have people wondering, "Should Winnipeg follow in these eco-friendly footsteps?"

Some Manitoba communities are already taking those steps including Thompson, Leaf Rapids, and Snow Lake. Leaf Rapids was actually the first municipality in the entire country to ban the use of plastic shopping bags almost 11 years ago. Otherwise, retail businesses across the province have already begun charging 5 cents per bag.

According to Winnipeg mayor Brian Bowman's spokesperson via Twitter, the mayor would consider having a dialogue concerning this topic. 

Since 2010, the Manitoba government has been hoping to reduce the use of single-use plastic bags in the province by 50% through Simply Recycle.

Karen Melnychuk, the Executive Director of Simply Recycle, informed us that reduction strategies that they've put in place for single-use plastic bags have exceeded the provincial target.

"We are currently around 67%. When you look at the three R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, when you take account of all those factors, all those programs and initiatives that have been put in place, I think Manitoba has been doing quite well reducing the amount of single-use bags."

A program they do with Winnipeg Harvest collects gently plastic bags at over 200 recycling bins at different locations across the province to use for emergency food kits.

foodbank grocerybag

"Winnipeg Harvest alone reuses 1 million bags a year for food kits," she says.

Melnychuk informed us that when Winnipeg Harvest collects bags that are not acceptable for re-use they are sent to be recycled by Cascades Recycling. She suggests that education on how to re-use or where to recycle plastic bags is very important. Should these bags be banned, it could actually negatively impact these efforts.

"They [Winnipeg Harvest] would have to go purchase them. Instead of re-using, you're purchasing new. So you're not really proceeding or helping the situation."

Karen Melnychuk also mentioned "Bag Up Manitoba" where 161 schools collected plastic bags in one month. Those students collected 1.1 million plastic bags. "The whole point is to educate these students... They're learning its better to reduce and reuse instead of putting them in a landfill."

We spoke with Tessa from West Broadway Community Ministries. She mentioned they do not accept plastic bags anymore, and they are in favor of the ban. "We collected plastic bags to use for making sleeping mats. We were very excited to do something cool with them, but it was amazing to see how many plastic bags came in. It overwhelmed us, and we didn't have enough storage space."

"There's too many plastic bags around Winnipeg right now. Although we were happy for all the generous donations that we got, we do think they'll still be plenty even when they are banned for quite a long time."

What do you think about banning plastic bags for good? Tell us your thoughts by emailing us at dj@chvnradio.com.