The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Flin Flon New Democratic Party Association is calling on the province to encourage more recycling. On the agenda at this weekend's Manitoba NDP Convention in Winnipeg is a resolution from the Flin Flon group asking for a new deposit to be placed on most beverage containers. The resolution calls for a network of depots to be established around the province at which people could return cans and bottles to collect deposit money. There's no guarantee the resolution will make it to the floor of the convention. Even if it does and the delegates approve it, the government is not bound by the vote, but would continue to look at the matter. For Ken Mansell, the vice-president of the Flin Flon NDP Association who authored the resolution, any increased awareness would be a positive development. "Right now, Manitoba only returns about 30 per cent of beverage containers. Saskatchewan returns 86 per cent," he said, noting that Saskatchewan has a system similar to what he is proposing. Mansell envisions a deposit of 10 to 20 cents per container, depending on its size. People would then collect the deposit money when returning containers to a depot for recycling. He said such a system could be run by the government, private enterprise or local recycling centres. Whatever the method, Mansell feels giving people a financial incentive to recycle will be nothing but good news for the environment. And as a bonus, he said not-for-profit groups would gain a new source of revenue by collecting and dropping off containers. "I'm an environmentalist. I don't want to see these cans laying all over the place," said Mansell. "I'd like to see kids or whoever make some money, and they can do the work instead of relying on people to put their recyclables on the curb." The Flin Flon NDP Association's resolution reads: "Whereas the Province of Manitoba lacks an effective recycling program for non-refillable beverage containers; and Whereas this would provide employment, economic development opportunities and environment protection. Therefore be it resolved that the Government of Manitoba establish a network of depots to provide a provincial collection system to gather most beverage containers; and Be it further resolved that a deposit for refund be added to a small non-refundable handling charge to provide incentive for return of these containers." It's one of a number of resolutions on the agenda at this weekend's convention. Some other resolutions from around the province call for: taxes on pornography and violent video games; an end to the indoor public smoking ban; a ban on cell phone use while driving; and the lowering of the voting age to 16.
