A Liberal bill to ban shopping bags is effectively dead, leaving the fate of the plastic nuisances bundled up in a confusing overhaul of the province's household recycling program.
Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard's bill to outlaw the bags by 2009 sparked vigorous debate Tuesday in the Manitoba legislature. But the Doer government ran down the clock instead of allowing the bill to move to the next legislative phase, meaning it will likely die when the session ends.
That lobs the issue back into the lap of a new industry group called the Multi-Materials Stewardship Board (MMSB) which is assigned to figure out a better way to fund and manage the recycling of pretty much everything you put in your blue box.
The idea is that the companies who make and use plastic bags, newspaper and pop bottles ought to be responsible for recycling and disposal. But the MMSB can't really get to work until the province unveils new regulations, a process that has been slow and confusing. A draft of the regulations is nearly 18 months old, and the stewardship model has been in the works for years.
"I've looked at a zillion timetables, and we haven't hit one yet," said Jim Fogg, head of the Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation. "It's been three or four years. Let's rock and roll."
Fogg's non-profit organization manages the two cent levy on pop cans and beverage containers and parcels that cash out to municipalities like Winnipeg to help fund blue box programs. Once the MMSB is up and running, Fogg's agency will be obsolete.
The regulations are expected any time, but it will be another six months before the new stewardship board has a plan in place to fund and manage the recycling of everything from pop cans to newspapers. That could include changes to the two cent levy on beverage containers, and it's not clear what the MMSB will do about shopping bags or what waste reduction targets they'll have to meet. The MMSB could add a levy onto the bags to fund a recycling program, which is what many jurisdictions have done.
In the meantime, Gerrard's bill won support from students, environmental groups and the Tories, who said it was a good springboard to action after years of NDP dithering.
But Conservation Minister Stan Struthers said Gerrard's bag ban came without any implementation plan. Bags amount to less than one per cent of the tonnage in a landfill and the province needs to tackle many waste streams, not just bags.
Cathy Cirko, vice-president of environment and health at the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, said Gerrard's bill was "180 degrees wrong."
She said bags account for very little litter or landfill tonnage and are commonly reused as garbage bags. A large recycling program, which is what retailers are working on, makes far more sense than an outright ban.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
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