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Michelle LeBlanc-Havar

Deputy Minister of Environment for the Government of Nunavut, formerly Director of Environmental Protection; guest on the Arctic Council podcast This Way Up.

Mar 30, 2026

This Way Up

This Way Up

Why is the Arctic Talking Trash?

Mar 30 · 45m

Jessica Cook
Jessica CookHOST
16:41
So how were cans chosen as the focus of the RecycleNU project?
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
16:46
We do have some statistics about the number of cans and bottles that are used.
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
16:51
So we see that this is a huge volume and a huge volume that's going into almost every landfill in Nunavut.
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
16:59
And so we thought, okay, let's pick the low-hanging fruit.
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
17:02
This is where we can make the most difference.
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
17:05
And also there's markets there.
Michelle LeBlanc-HavarGUEST
17:07
So we feed back into a circular economy.

7 MINS LATER

Jessica Cook
Jessica CookHOST
24:17
We asked Michelle if she could share some advice for people that are interested in new solid waste management solutions for their community.

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