Plastic hassle: Single-use bags have to go

Bans have been successful elsewhere, say Melissa Gorrie and Michael Kalmanovitch.

The movement to address single-use bags is growing. Over 100 jurisdictions have enacted laws to address single-use bags. In recent months, Montreal and Victoria have implemented single-use bag bylaws. These cities join several other Canadian municipalities, including the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo.

Will Edmonton (and perhaps all of Alberta) be next? There is a grassroots movement within Edmonton calling for a bylaw that either bans, or requires a significant surcharge for, all single-use bags. A petition was started a few months ago in support, which has thus far gathered over 7,000 signatures.

A campaign has also been created by Waste Free Edmonton to ensure government takes action. Citizens are reaching out to city council to support a bag-reduction strategy in Edmonton. Meetings have also been held with municipal and provincial officials.

The city has indicated a willingness to revisit this issue, first discussed in 2008, by requesting a report on the most effective ways to address single-use bags. This is a good first step, but we really need lawmakers to take meaningful action to reduce the number of single-use bags floating (literally) around.

Addressing single-use bags, especially ones made of plastic, makes sense for a variety of reasons.

We are wasting a lot of non-renewable resources and emitting a lot of greenhouse gases to make, transport and dispose of plastic bags. Making one plastic bag uses up enough petroleum to drive a car 11 metres and releases approximately 200 grams of CO2.

We are trading a few minutes of convenience for centuries worth of waste. A plastic bag has an average use of 12 minutes, yet it is a product that will outlive us. Most bags end up in the landfill where they slowly degrade over a 1,000year period. They litter the landscape. Take a walk and count the number of bags you see tumbling down the road or caught in a tree. It’s depressing.

Plastic bags can eventually end up in rivers and oceans where they can entangle, suffocate, and starve marine life. There are approximately 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in each square mile of ocean, putting nearly 400 species at risk, including turtles, seals, birds and whales.

They are bad for our health. The production, transport and disposal of single-use bags emit a slew of toxic chemicals that cause air-quality issues. Once plastic bags hit the water they also break down into toxic microplastics that are ultimately consumed by humans through the food chain and our water supply. That means that the plastic we use to carry our groceries home can eventually end up being on our dinner plates.

They place strain on municipal waste-management resources and cost taxpayers money.

It is estimated Edmontonians use 200 million plastic bags a year. That is a lot of waste to manage, especially since bags clog waste-management machinery and contaminate other recyclables. It is also estimated that single-use bags impose over 17 cents each in clean-up costs, which ends up being paid by taxpayers.

We have become dependent on a product that wastes energy, creates litter, sticks around forever in the landfill, suffocates oceans, and impacts our health, just so we can have a convenient way to carry a few groceries. Doesn’t sound so convenient to us.

While the problems associated with singleuse bags are indisputable, there is still ongoing debate about whether a law is the right solution. Evidence from numerous jurisdictions tells us it is.

Whether it’s an outright ban, surcharge or hybrid approach, we are seeing a decrease in the use of single-use bags and an increase in reusable bags in other jurisdictions.

Ireland’s plastic bag fee resulted in a 95-percent reduction in plastic bag waste. Washington, D.C’.s five-cent charge has led to a 60-per-cent drop in overall single-use bags and a corresponding drop in bag litter in their river. San Jose’s ban reduced plastic debris by about 89 per cent.

Taking action to reduce the number of plastic bags won’t solve all our environmental and health problems, but it is an important and necessary step toward reducing our reliance on disposable items and decreasing the ridiculous amount of plastic pollution being created. It is a step we hope Edmonton city council will take soon.