WINNIPEG — The seventh annual Bag Up Manitoba program was launched Friday, encouraging students across the province to collect plastic bags during the month of October to keep them out of landfills.
Take Pride Winnipeg! and Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba held the kickoff at Bairdmore School, who collected the most bags last year to be awarded a special bench made from the recycled material.
Collected bags are baled and recycled to become items such as garden boxes and park benches, made from a composite of recycled plastic and cellulose fibre.
“MMSM and businesses from the food, beverage and consumer good sectors, have committed to reduce the amount of plastic bags distributed in Manitoba by 50%. Thanks to programs like Bag Up Manitoba, we are proud to say we have achieved a 46.7% reduction so far,” said Karen Melnychuk, executive director of MMSM.
In 2013, 1.3 million bags were collected by 168 schools in the province.
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