Member’s Statement – Environment Day, June 5, 2015
Mr. Speaker, today is an important day for New Brunswick. Not only is it the final day of the first session of the 58th assembly: the assembly which saw the election of New Brunswick’s first Green MLA, but it is the United Nations World Environment Day. The theme this year is reducing consumption. The commuter challenge that many public officials and employees have participated in this week is a great example of reducing carbon emissions, but it is only the tip of the iceburg. Mr. Speaker, for every unit of garbage a household generates, 70 units of waste have been produced along the production cycle. If each household in New Brunswick reduced their waste production by one bag of garbage each month, they would save almost 22 million bags worth of waste being released into our system. Many people become discouraged that the problems with our environment are too big to tackle alone, but that is simply untrue. Each person plays a critical role when it comes to our environment.