Clean room, clean house, clean community, clean city, clean province, clean country, clean world.

Clad in a jacket made of reused plastic bags, that was the message Take Pride Winnipeg! Executive Director Tom Ethans conveyed to 172 elementary school students at Nordale School this morning, at the launch of the Bag Up Manitoba program.

The campaign is organized by Take Pride Winnipeg! and Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba (MMSM) and encourages students to bring in plastic grocery bags from home so they can be reused or recycled instead of ending up in the landfill or with regular recycling.

“Students can make a big difference by doing something like this, making sure these bags aren’t floating around our streets and getting into rivers and lakes,” said Ethans. “Young people are really starting to learn more about the environment in schools and this is a positive message they can take home to show that they are making a difference in helping the planet.”

Ethans says Bag Up Manitoba started in 2007 and last year 137 schools participated. This year over 100 schools in the province have registered, and Ethans believes that number will grow.

“We’re expecting 150 by the end of the campaign and that’s awesome,” he said. “This initiative is gaining momentum and we’ve even seen it start to spread into the United States in Nebraska and Louisiana.”

MMSM Executive Director Karen Melnychuk says since MMSM started, they’ve been able to divert over 70 per cent of single-use plastic bags that would otherwise end up in the landfill.

She says the Bag Up Manitoba program collected 1.1-million bags last year.

“You can’t put plastic bags in the blue box because that tangles the equipment at the processor so we need to separate them from that recycling or use other methods to reuse bags,” said Melnychuk. “Instead of buying garbage bags, use a plastic bag. If you have a dog and need to dispose of pet waste use plastic bags. Bring them back to the stores you got them from or bring them to Winnipeg Harvest or Siloam Mission or second-hand stores that use them.”

Winnipeg Harvest uses over 1-million plastic bags every year for emergency food kits, according to Melnychuk.

Melnychuk says it’s important to target young people with this message.

“You have to start at the grassroots level,” she said. “Kids are the ones who bring this message to their parents, their siblings and their communities and they are able to change behaviours.”

The Bag Up Manitoba program runs until the end of October and Melnychuk says all schools are welcome to take part. Every school that takes part will receive a birdhouse made of composite wood and three schools selected at random will win a bench made of composite wood.

You can sign up for the program at takepride.mb.ca.