Plastic straw use most prevalent in Manitoba, Stats Canada survey finds

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.