At a public meeting of Niverville’s town council on April 2, Councillor Chris Wiebe gave a report about a waste management meeting he attended in early March. At that meeting, round table discussions took place between representatives of the south quadrant of the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region. Municipalities involved in this quadrant include Niverville, the RM of Ritchot, the RM of Tache, Roseau River First Nations, and the RM of Morris.
The topic of discussion included ways to reduce landfill waste in the region, primarily in terms of single-use plastic bags. After a thorough examination of the problems associated with plastic bags, the team produced a proposal which they intend to submit to the Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM). It is their hope that the AMM will, in turn, make a formal request of the province to eliminate the use of single-use plastic bags across the province.
Wiebe says the group realizes that such an initiative requires a much broader scope than just banning plastic bags in the municipalities south of Winnipeg.
“We could ban plastic bags in Niverville or in Morris or in Ritchot,” Wiebe says, “but the problem is Winnipeg. The few garbage bags that are generated locally is a drop in the bucket in comparison to what comes into our communities from Winnipeg.”
Wiebe anticipates that this request will be on the table at the AMM’s fall general meeting. As for providing alternatives to plastic bag use, Wiebe says that was not a part of his team’s agenda.
“If you eliminate the problem, the solution will come,” Wiebe concludes.
Wiebe also imagines that pushback to such an initiative is likely to come from larger city supermarkets that charge for plastic bags since they’re a commodity that add to the company’s profit margin.
“It’s just cowboy math,” he says. “They’re paying [a fraction of a cent] for something that they’re selling for [a few] cents a bag… You sell a million bags, and what other kind of product can they make that kind of margin on?”
