Ban the bag, students urge city

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This article was published 21/04/2018 (3009 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A group of high-school students is on a mission to get single-use plastic bags banned in Winnipeg, and it’s a fight they plan to take all the way to city hall.

“We really don’t have time to mess around when it comes to our environment,” West Kildonan Collegiate Grade 12 student Victor Selby said.

“When you look at the scope of the problem and where things are headed with our environment both in Manitoba and worldwide, you realize that we have to start taking action right now.”

Last month Selby, along with Grade 12 classmates Tatiana Schwenzer, Christina Tran and Destiny Bushie, started a petition asking for Mayor Brian Bowman and the rest of city council to consider banning single-use plastic bags in Winnipeg.

Selby said it was another major Canadian city’s decision to impose a similar ban that pushed him and his classmates into action.

“We were really intrigued and really inspired by Montreal’s recent decision to ban plastic bags and as a result we thought, ‘if a city that much bigger than Winnipeg can do it, then why not Winnipeg?’”

The four students decided to start a petition, but their efforts are about a lot more than just collecting signatures.

“We thought we would give it a go, but more as a public awareness thing to show people that it can be done and to educate people, and it kind of blew up more than we were ever expecting,” Selby said.

“The goal is to introduce the idea of a ban to people, and just show them that this is something that can be done. A lot of this is about educating people.”

Selby said about 160 million single-use plastic bags are thrown out every year in Manitoba alone.

That’s an alarming number when you consider the overall population of the province, he said.

“That’s 160 million per year in a province with about a million people. That is just crazy.”

Worldwide, the statistics are more troubling. It’s estimated more than one trillion single-use plastic bags are thrown away annually.

According to Tran, plastic bags are one of the worst items to throw into a landfill.

“It’s not just going to break down and decompose,” Tran said. “It’s just going to stay there and float around and it ends up finding its way into the environment, one way or another.”

Tran said the material can make its way into waterways and even into human bodies, as a tiny piece of plastic known as microplastic.

“When they break down into tiny little pieces of plastics they end up in waterways and species will mistake them for food and eat them,” Tran said. “And those are the same species that are eaten by humans, so we’re concerned for the health of the ecosystem and the health of humans.

“Animals eating plastics is a bad thing for the ecosystem and it’s a bad thing for humans.”

According to Selby, the group had hoped to garner 1,000 signatures for their petition, but as of April 17, they were closing in on 4,000 signatures and have since set a new goal of 5,000.

They will also conduct a number of surveys asking students at their and others schools if they support a ban, and other ways to reduce plastic-bag waste.

“We want to get the schools involved and get people’s opinions,” Selby said.

The petition and the results of the survey will be sent to Bowman.

Four Manitoba municipalities already have banned single-use plastic bags — Leaf Rapids, Snow Lake, The Pas and Thompson.

Sustainable Development Minister Rochelle Squires said the idea of a plastic-bag ban is something she hopes all municipalities in Manitoba, including Winnipeg, will consider.

After a ban was implemented in Montreal, Squires tweeted her thoughts on Jan. 1, 2018: “Very good news for Montreal. Should Winnipeg add itself to the growing list of municipalities to ban these shopping bags? #somethingworthconsidering”

Squires added she is willing to work with other municipalities toward the goal of reducing plastic bag usage, or all-out bans.

“It’s a matter of working with all of the stakeholders to see what we can do about diverting those 160 million-plus plastic bags out of the landfill every year,” Squires said.

“We know they wreak havoc on our environment.”

Squires said she has spoken to Thompson Mayor Dennis Fenske, who has told her the ban in his community has been a “positive thing.”

The minister added she appreciates seeing young people such as Selby, Schwenzer, Tran and Bushie working toward the lofty goal of getting plastic bag use reduced or eliminated in Winnipeg.

“I very wholeheartedly congratulate the students of West Kildonan Collegiate for their advocacy on this very important issue and I applaud their efforts,” she said.

“And I also would like to applaud their educators who play a role in insuring that they are environmentally conscious.

“Ultimately we will be passing the torch to the next generation to be stewards of the environment and I feel we are in good hands.”

The students’ petition can be found online at wfp.to/banplastics.