There’s a lot of discussion about whether or not Nova Scotia should ban plastic bags.
HRM council will be discussing the issue over the next few months about banning the products in that municipality because they can’t find markets.
China no longer accepts the materials.
Councillor Tony Mancini plans to introduce a motion at today’s council meeting to ask staff to create a bylaw banning plastic bags.
Cities including Montreal and Victoria have already banned plastic bags.
Among those watching how the situation unfolds is Wastecheck.
They are the solid waste coordinator for region 7 whose members are the towns of Yarmouth and Digby and the municipalities of Yarmouth, Digby, Argyle and Clare.
Manager Gus Green says it’s definitely on their radar.
He says it was discussed at length at a provincial Wastecheck meeting last week attended by Green and Warden Leland Anthony, the chair of Wastecheck region 7.
“The chairs were instructed to go back to their own regions and basically gauge the level of support within their regions for banning plastic bags so that’s definitely something we’ll be talking about at our next meeting.”
Green says there was also discussion at the provincial meeting about any fallout should HRM ultimately decide to ban plastic bags.
He says if the biggest municipality in the province recommends a ban then it would be easier for smaller units to to get on side.
Green says so far there haven’t been the problems like those experienced by HRM where they had to seek temporary special permission to take the plastics to a landfill.
“Right now we are contracted with Scotia Recycling, all of our municipal units, and they do all our recycling and marketing of the recyclables. Scotia Recycling has indicated that, while they’ve has some issues, that it hasn’t been insurmountable for them, that they’ve been able to move some of the material, so it hasn’t been that bad.”
Green encourages people to continue to recycle the way they have for the last 20 years.
