A pale shade of Green

Weak on recycling, more likely than most to guzzle bottled water and less than keen on energy-efficient lights: Manitoba’s environmental reputation took a beating in the last month.

Story after story called into question Manitoba's green cred, from reports the province is so-so on recycling to news that city hall has just started offering a full recycling program for staff, a decade after Winnipeggers got their first blue boxes.

The reports flummox and frustrate environmental groups, but some in the industry say there's more to the data than meets the eye.

And the green-minded can take some comfort in the fact that at least one of Canada's greenest provinces had a less-than-stellar record not long ago.

Recycling

BY some calculations Manitoba takes the title of Canada's worst recycler, with 88 per cent of people who can recycle actually doing so, nine per cent shy of Canada's average in 2006.

Prince Edward Island made the top of the list in the same Statistics Canada report, with 99 per cent of people accessing and using recycling programs.

The difference between recycling in the Prairie province and the Atlantic island starts with the simple matter of space, which is at a premium in P.E.I.

"There's probably not a spot on P.E.I. where you'd be two miles from the nearest house," said Ron Ryder, spokesman with the province's Department of Environment, Energy and Forestry.

Dwindling landfill space led to Waste Watch, a system set up in 2006 where islanders' trash and compost are picked up on alternating weeks and recyclables once a month. It's provincewide and mandatory for residents and businesses, but it's not free. Islanders pay about $150 a year for the program, said Ryder. There are fines for non-compliance, but most people follow the rules after their non-sorted waste is left at the curb, he said.

The province's near-perfect record is in contrast with its numbers from a decade ago, when just 21 per cent of people had recycling access.

Ryder said P.E.I.'s system could work in Winnipeg, but probably not in sparsely populated rural Manitoba.

Around the province, recycling programs are touch and go. Ninety per cent of Manitobans had access to some sort of recycling in 2006, but fewer people could recycle paper, plastic and aluminum even if they wanted to. Winnipeg's solid waste manager Darryl Drohomerski said access can be limited in rural areas and on First Nations.

There's still the question of what's stopping the 12 per cent of Manitobans who can recycle but don't. Drohomerski blamed misinformation -- mainly false rumours that recyclables go to the landfill -- and people who swear off recycling after bad experiences such as broken blue boxes.

For some, putting food on the table is a bigger concern than worrying about recycling, he said.

Manitoba Product Stewardship Corp. general manager Jim Fogg said many factors influence recycling, from available landfill space to the economy and labour conditions.

And provinces with high participation rates aren't always better recyclers. In Newfoundland and Labrador, 94 per cent of people recycled through some kind of program, but just a third of people surveyed could recycle paper. Saskatchewan had higher rates than Manitoba, but fewer people there could recycle paper or plastic, and Saskatoon has no free curbside program.

In some places, recycling might just mean returning pop cans through a bottle-deposit program, Drohomerski said. He said if Manitoba had such a program, "our participation rate would probably go to 99 per cent," though it's unclear how much more waste would stay out of landfills.

Drohomerski said Winnipeg will likely improve its recycling in the next few years, possibly trying a cart-based system where people pay by volume. But a program such as P.E.I.'s could be a hard sell. Some Winnipeggers still bristle over the idea of garbage pickup fees, pitched and later abandoned by former mayor Glen Murray.

And better recycling comes at a cost. Nova Scotia diverted from landfills close to 300 kilograms of waste per person in the most recent data, but paid close to $100 a person to handle waste. Manitoba spent around $40 a person to divert less than half as much waste.

Bottled water

MANITOBANS aren't just breezing past the national numbers on bottled-water consumption. We're also drinking more of it each year, with 37 per cent drinking mostly bottled water in 2007, up eight per cent from 2006.

Statistics Canada cautioned changes in survey wording could have affected the latest numbers, but the rate was high enough to concern conservationists.

Compare that with P.E.I., where the number of bottled-water drinkers was 20 per cent.

There could be one obvious factor: Charlottetown banned bottled water at city facilities in 2007, the first major municipality to do so, said Council of Canadians water campaigner Meera Karunananthan. Winnipeg considered a ban last fall but shelved the idea.

An earlier Statistics Canada report singled out Saskatoon as far more likely to drink tap water. Just 10 per cent of people opted mainly for the bottled stuff.

"We have very, very good municipal water," said Dr. John Bury, a member of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society's water committee. "There's no question about that."

But recent concerns about lead contamination could hurt his city's numbers, and the issue might go beyond tasty tap water. Statistics Canada said public education played a part, and Bury agreed. He said schools devote a lot of class time to the issue, and he gives his own presentations on bottled water's environmental costs.

Water quality could be a concern here. More than half of Manitobans with a municipal water supply filter, boil or otherwise treat it, and 73 per cent of them do so because of the appearance, taste or smell of the water.

If that's the issue, Winnipeg might see tap-water drinking go up after the city's new water treatment facility comes online later this year.

Light bulbs

SET aside the mountains, sky-high property costs and ocean-front real estate, and you'll find similarities between British Columbia and Manitoba.

Hydroelectricity powers both provinces, and both offer rebates on energy-efficient light bulbs. So why is Manitoba one of the slowest provinces to adopt them, while B.C. leads the country?

Statistics Canada found 78 per cent of Manitobans used some kind of energy-saving light bulb in 2007, the second-lowest rate in Canada. B.C. and Ontario scored the highest with 87 per cent, and B.C. also topped Manitoba for use of compact fluorescent light bulbs.

B.C. Sustainable Energy Association president Guy Dauncey thinks rebate promotions by B.C. Hydro played a role in the higher numbers. But he also suspects West Coasters might just be greener than prairie dwellers.

"I think generally, there's more environmental awareness in B.C.," he said.

Manitoba Hydro has run rebates for years on compact fluorescent light bulbs. The current program offers $1 or $3 savings on Energy Star compact fluorescents at qualified stores.

Dauncey said Manitobans might be less aware than British Columbians that a portion of our power is imported from coal-generating plants south of the border, the same situation as in B.C.

"If you generate more power than you need in the province, the green power you export and make income from can help to close down the coal-fired power plants in the Dakotas," he said.

Amid the doom and gloom, here's something to soothe Manitoba's green self-esteem: the number of homes here lit by compact fluorescents might be the lowest in Canada, but it still rose by 14 per cent between 2006 and 2007.

lindsey.wiebe@freepress.mb.ca

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Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 22, 2009 A1