Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 14/99) - According to Les Kuniliusi in Qikiqtarjuaq, littering has become a real problem in his community.

Unsightly trash is accumulating along the shores of Broughton Island and into the Davis Strait he says, making areas that were once considered places of pristine wilderness into fouled country -- littered with shopping bags, pop cans and other household wastes.

"These Northern Store bags," Kuniliusi said in disgust. "They fly in from the dump and end up all around the community."

"Once, my outboard motor got caught up with these bags. It is dangerous because the engine sucks them up and stalls it. You can end up drifting out in the water and get swept away. It really makes me mad. I want to voice this out and make people aware of this."

Earl Baddaloo, manager of environmental protection for Nunavut, feels much the same way, but is quick to point out the difficulty is determining who can be blamed for the garbage build-up around some of the communities.

"You can't just blame the Northern Stores for all the garbage in and around the communities," Baddaloo said. "For the smaller communities, they are often the only store around for the people to shop at. Also, there is no legislation in place to hold the store responsible for their plastic bags and empty pop cans and containers.

"What will help is if the people in the communities take responsibility for their garbage. When they are out on the land, they should make sure they take back all their garbage with them. When you go to the dump, you should make sure that you take all your garbage and package it so it doesn't blow away. It is very windy up here and that only intensifies the problem."

Director of Public Services in Inuvik, John Bulmer, sees similar problems in his community but points out a major difference between the situation in many of the Western Arctic communities and of those in Nunavut.

"We have trees surrounding the dump," Bulmer said. "It's a different situation because Nunavut communities don't have good tree coverage. It helps keep the wind down and the garbage in the dump.

"We also have a perimeter fence that traps some of the garbage and we do an annual clean-up after the snow's gone."

Bulmer also pointed out the need for more recycling bins in the North.

"Other stores down south have recycling bins," Bulmer said. "I haven't seen any here for Northern Stores."

Carl McKay, vice-president of sales and operations for Northern stores out of its Winnipeg base, reports that there does not appear to be any initiatives from either the territorial or federal governments on creating a Northern recycling program in association with their stores.

"To the best of my knowledge we have never been approached by the federal or territorial governments," McKay said. "If there is someone in the governments and in the communities that wish to implement a recycling program, we should be a part of it."

"It does not mean we shouldn't do something about it," Mckay added. "We just need more creative solutions among the consumer industry and the governments."

Director of environmental protection services Emory Paquin contends that there is no consolidated effort by the territorial or federal governments at present time to deal with the issue of recycling programs.

"There is no organized territorial return program for empty food or beverage containers with the exception on liquor containers," Paquin said. "The territorial government is not looking at such a program at this time."

"As it stands now the territorial Environmental Protection Act has within it a mandate to provide advice to water licensing boards for waste disposal in the communities only. The licensing boards are under federal jurisdiction and they are the regulatory agencies that make sure community waste disposal areas are properly managed."

Earl Baddaloo, in Iqaluit, would like to see concerns with waste management looked at from the ground up.

"Walking around Iqaluit, it is very depressing to see all the garbage people throw around," Baddaloo said. "We need to put garbage cans strategically around town, particularly in the larger communities, in such places as in front of convenience stores, outside of schools and in playgrounds. It will make the town much nicer."

Baddaloo would also like to see a recycling program come to Nunavut soon.

"The Nunavut government will be looking at ways to establish a recycling program. We are currently looking at ways for getting assistance from the federal government for developing a recycling program for Nunavut."

Emory Paquin pointed out the differences between the North and that of the rest of North America and Europe.

"The North is unique from other areas of North America and Europe," Paquin said. "We have to adopt systems that work here."

Paquin discussed issues, such as product sterwardship. Stewardship is a practice that is being implemented in some European countries. It has generated a great deal of interest in Canada with the Federal Provincial Territorial Advisory Committee (FPAC), a governmental agency that looks closely at pollution in Canada.

"It's not like we're a small country with a population of 10 million. Product stewardship might work over there because it would be easier to implement in a country with a larger work force and smaller distances to travel back from the consumer to the manufacturer."

Product stewardship involves requiring the manufacturer to set up a return system from the consumer back to them for recycling. The consumer, in turn, can be fined for throwing out recyclable wastes in the garbage. Therefore, it is a system that motivates everyone in the consumer chain to recycle.

"It may work in some cases," Paquin said. "Our system, however, has to have a cost-effective way in order for it to work. Most of the communities in the North are so far away it would be difficult to make this feasible."