Let’s have a national plan to reduce plastics

RE: RIPPED OFF BY PLASTIC BAG TAX (LETTERS, APRIL 16)

I would respectfully like to suggest another way of looking at plastic bag charges. We have all occasionally left our own bags in the trunk of the car. When this happens, we can go back for our bags, purchase another reusable bag, or pay the nominal fee for the store’s ‘one time use’ plastic bags. Since we are fully empowered to make our own choice, it is easy to avoid the plastic bag cost, if a person feels it is onerous.

More importantly, let’s remind ourselves that stores are levying this charge to discourage use of one-time plastic bags, which are responsible for clogging streams, rivers and oceans with harmful plastic waste that is devastating to wildlife. Since most purchases are subject to HST, it is unsurprising to find that plastic bags are, too. Rather than view this as consumer gouging or a tax grab, maybe we should regard it as a legitimate price to pay for using something that carries an environmental risk. What we really need, though, in my opinion, is a complete ban on one-time use plastics. Some communities have already done this. I encourage Spec readers to ask their MP to support Motion M-151, introduced by NDP MP Gord Johns, which recommends a national strategy to reduce plastic products such as bags, bottles, and straws entering the oceans, to clean up shores and to educate the public about plastic pollution. Let’s get behind this worthwhile initiative and begin to clean up our act.

Jane Jenner, Burlington