Manitoba is lagging behind other provinces when it comes to shifting away from some single-use plastics, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada.
Plastic drinking straws were used by 20 per cent of 38,000 Canadian households surveyed in 2021, down from 23 per cent in 2019.
Plastic straw use was most prevalent in Manitoba with 29 per cent of households using them and 41 per cent using four or more per week.
The numbers don’t surprise Colleen Ans, coordinator of Green Action Centre’s Living Green, Living Well program.
“It’s not too hard to believe that people are still using plastic straws because they are so accessible and some businesses have made the switch and some have also taken back that switch due to the pandemic,” Ans said.
“We see there are a lot of keen people and eager people to find other alternatives. It might be an issue of them just not knowing what those alternatives are or forgetting to refuse it and putting it on the business or really just regulating that is where it’s going to make the difference that we need to see it just completely be eliminated.”
A federal ban on importing and manufacturing products including plastic straws, takeout containers and bags is set to take effect at the end of this year.
Coming out of the challenges of the pandemic, the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association said now is not the right time to ban plastics.
Shaun Jeffrey, the organization’s executive director, said alternatives may be more expensive and difficult for restaurants to get due to supply chain issues.
“It is going to have an impact and we would really significantly be looking at the government to really focus on maybe focusing on the manufacturer aspect of this and trying to find more environmentally ways to provide this product than putting it on an industry that is still reeling from 24 months of pandemic detriment,” Jeffrey said.
It didn’t take much convincing for Winnipeg residents Tara and Jeff Miller to start using alternatives to plastic drinking straws.
The couple rarely used them at home and some of their favourite places to eat stopped using plastic.
“When we were eating out a lot they ended up making the switch a lot that way and some of the restaurants that we had tended to switch over to the paper straws,” Tara said.
When it comes to ditching plastic bags at the grocery store, shoppers in Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia were more likely to bring their own bags compared to 49 per cent of Manitoba households and around twice as likely as households in British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
“I probably have two rubber tote buckets full of the new recycled bags and sometimes they make it to the vehicle and sometimes they make it out into the store,” Jeff said.
For those who forget to bring bags to the store, Ans said one way to help yourself remember for next time is to carry out your items by hand to help serve as motivation to pack them on your next trip.
Ans said it takes around 450 uses of a reusable bag to make it carbon neutral, depending on what it’s made of.
She said that’s why it’s important to keep in mind anything you buy will have a carbon footprint.
Two of Canada's men's world junior hockey teams are being investigated by police following alleged group sexual assaults in 2003 and 2018.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he's concerned sports organizations are not fulfilling their responsibility to keep athletes safe, and groups like Hockey Canada and Gymnastics Canada have work to do to restore trust and assure parents their children are taken care of.
Testimony has ended in the trial of a former Vancouver Canucks forward charged with sexual assault.
A Conservative committee reviewing Patrick Brown's disqualification from the leadership race has concluded the party had the evidence it needed to recommend he be removed from contention.
Frustrations are mounting as reports of lost and delayed baggage at Canada's airports pile up. On CTVNews.ca, passengers share their stories of spending weeks, even months, waiting to be reunited with their checked baggage.
Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former U.S. president Donald Trump was convicted Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
The Canadian government will increase old age security starting next week, a move the feds say will be the first permanent raise to the pension in nearly 50 years.
A dispute over legal protections for American customs officers has kept Nexus enrolment centres closed in Canada more than three months after they reopened south of the border -- due in part to a clash over U.S. agents' right to carry guns on Canadian soil.
The MV Holiday Island ferry was evacuated Friday afternoon after a fire broke out in the engine room earlier in the day.
The Pope may not be visiting Saskatchewan on his national apology tour, but that doesn’t mean some of the provinces’ residential school survivors won’t be seeing him.
Community fridges are struggling to keep their shelves stocked as food insecurity continues to be a prevalent issue in Regina.
Southey RCMP have released a sketch of the suspect in an alleged sexual assault of a preteen child in Govan, Sask.
The city is left footing the bill after a Saskatoon bridge was damaged in a hit-and-run earlier this year.
David Kirton says he wants people to feel safe on Saskatoon's buses and thinks transit police could be the answer.
The Canadian government has transferred 690 hectares of land from Batoche National Historic Site Saskatchewan to Métis Nation – Saskatchewan.
The Drug Strategy Committee of North Bay & Area is collaborating with local police and other agencies to try to save victims of human trafficking.
More than $38 million in bursaries, scholarships and other targeted donations to Laurentian University is gone, court documents filed this week show.
A southern Ontario man drowned July 19 trying to rescue two children swimming in Haviland Bay, west of Sault Ste. Marie, police said Friday.
As gas prices rise in Alberta, the premier says he's going to ask Canada's competition bureau to investigate potential price fixing in the province.
An Edmonton woman says she’s out $2,500 after Swoop cancelled her flight last month.
Police are looking for a man who stole a Rolex watch and hit one of the sellers with his vehicle during a Kijiji sale gone wrong earlier this month.
Experts say there may be a chance to catch the northern lights in some parts of Ontario tonight, but there’s still some uncertainty.
Kiki Jones has spent the past few days taking cold showers, avoiding physical activity, keeping the blinds shut and blasting electric fans in their non-air-conditioned apartment in Toronto.
Milton, Ont. resident Tammy Glendinning said she burst into a happy dance after learning that her sons’ passports would be arriving in time for their early August $35,000 safari.
Calgary police are on scene of a rollover late Friday afternoon on Bow Trail and 45 Street SW that killed one person and sent two others to hospital
Family members and friends of a young Alberta couple killed in an alleged impaired driving crash last month are calling for justice as they heard bail arguments for the man accused on Friday.
Tempers are flaring as another health care facility in Alberta starts two months of temporary closures.
An explosion at a polymer research centre in Greater Montreal left one dead and three injured Friday morning.
Montreal's transit agency announced Friday that its new CEO is Marie-Claude Leonard, a 30-year veteran employee who started working there as an STM cashier when she was a student.
Canada's visa troubles have struck again, this time hitting the annual Nuits D'Afrique festival hosted in Montreal.
The cold and flu medication shelves at several Ottawa pharmacies are empty or nearly empty this week, as an increase in demand and supply issues create a shortage in available medications.
A porch pirate rodent has a new converter for its den, after being caught on camera stealing an Amazon package from a home in Winchester, Ont. this week.
A temporary no-stopping zone will be in effect in downtown Ottawa on Saturday, as the city prepares for a slow-roll convoy and protest in support of farmers protesting the government's new environmental rules in the Netherlands.
The MV Holiday Island ferry was evacuated Friday afternoon after a fire broke out in the engine room earlier in the day.
The senior RCMP officer in the district where the Nova Scotia mass shooting occurred says he stayed home during the rampage because having a "white shirt" present at the command post would have caused confusion.
Heat warnings remain in place throughout Eastern Canada, with Environment Canada warning of humidex levels in the mid to high 30s or even 40 C heading into the weekend.
New data shows even though the average home price is coming down, higher stress tests driven by increasing mortgage rates mean the annual income you need to buy a home is actually going up in Kitchener and many Canadian cities.
The Waterloo Region District Public School Board has offered few public details about what it’s calling the “cyber incidents” that impacted its IT system, but one cyber security expert says the breach is concerning.
The COVID-19 assessment centre on Holiday Inn Drive in Cambridge is closing this weekend as staff are redeployed to Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
Mounties are looking for a man accused of murder who they say is unlawfully at large after he left the North Fraser Pre-Trial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C.
A long-range plan meant to help shape Vancouver's future, which includes controversial renter protections, has been approved by city council.
Testimony has ended in the trial of a former Vancouver Canucks forward charged with sexual assault.
BC Ferries made the unexpected announcement Friday that it had fired its CEO Mark Collins, effective immediately.
John Hillman, who captured hearts all over the world at the start of the pandemic by raising money for COVID-19 relief, is now a Canadian citizen.
A beloved waterfront concert at Victoria's Inner Harbour will see some major changes this year as the usual single-day event gets drawn out into a full-blown summer festival.
© 2022 All rights reserved. Use of this Website assumes acceptance of Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy