Month-long drive to cut back single-use waste kicks off with plastic-free lunch

Manitobans at the Forks borrowed or brought their own reusable takeaway containers, cups and cutlery to lunch as part of a month-long campaign to cut back on one of the biggest areas of waste: single-use plastics.

Aster Measho is a disability support worker who joined her peers under the canopy for the Green Action Centre's Thursday launch of Plastic Free July in Manitoba.

"I'm enjoying a healthy lunch for five dollars, and there's no plastic, no reusable material at all," Measho said between bites of food catered by Tall Grass Prairie Bread Company.

"I'm very happy about that ... because it's our environment," she said.

The Green Action Centre's work focuses on green commuting, sustainable living and resource conservation, in addition to composting and waste reduction.

"We've ensured that all of the food coming out the kitchen is not wrapped in any plastic, and we're encouraging people to even bring their own cutlery ... to start forming habits," Bethany Daman, the centre's sustainability co-ordinator, said in an interview.

Daman helped organize Thursday's plastic-free event with the goal of encouraging Manitobans to remove one-time use products from their everyday lives.

Worldwide movement

Last month, the federal government pledged to ban harmful single-use plastics and hold companies responsible for plastic waste. The month-long challenge taking place in the province builds on a global initiative that started overseas in Australia.

Daman said 40 per cent of plastic is used just once before it gets tossed away. The key culprits include take-out containers and coffee cups, produce and grocery bags, cutlery, straws and single-use plastic wrap.

The goal, Daman said, is to reduce or eliminate everything that turns up in garbage or recycling bins after only a few uses. It differs from person to person, so people need to approach things on a case-by-case basis as they find alternatives to wasteful plastics, she said.

The not-for-profit environmental organization is encouraging people to participate for a day, a week or the full month by shopping in bulk and at farmers' markets, and by bringing their own reusable bags, cutlery and mugs to restaurants and stores.

Waste builds up

The centre advocates for using less plastic and decreasing reliance on fossil fuels often used to make plastics which, Daman said, are unsustainable and damaging to ecosystems.

She said plastic can eventually break down, but then leaves behind micro-plastics that remain in the ecosystem.

Helen Carriere, who joined Measho for a plastic-free lunch with two clients from L'Arche Winnipeg, said Thursday was the first she had heard about the harmful impacts of micro-plastics on human health and the environment.

"It doesn't biodegrade like normal organic material. What it does is breaks into tiny little pieces which blow away, go in the atmosphere, go in the lakes, go in our water ... which really scares me."

Researcher Philipp Schwabl found micro-plastics in stool samples provided by eight participants in his study for the Medical University of Vienna on the material buildup of plastic particles in people.

"When it starts affecting the higher food chains, that's when it really gets scary," Carriere said.

Carriere said the community home at L'Arche Winnipeg, which houses individuals with developmental disabilities, has already started taking part in limiting one-time use plastics by avoiding purchases of single-use plates, cutlery and straws, and stocking up on metal straws.

"We're doing our little part.... We're trying our best," Carriere said.

Piece by piece

University of Manitoba student Andrea Marcon, who works at the school's sustainability office, brought her own forks, to-go container, water tumbler and coffee mug to the meal.

"Our landfills are overflowing with plastic, and the world that we live in was designed around plastic, and it's polluting our oceans, our waterways, our land, our ecosystems, our forest," the university student said.

Marcon said her school has begun to contribute to the movement in several ways, including recycling plastic bags through Winnipeg Harvest, providing compostible and biodegradable takeaway containers at campus food retailers and offering discounts at places like the campus Starbucks for students who bring their own reusable mugs to school.

"We can still take small steps to improve our everyday lives and help the environment when we can."