Halifax considers plastic bag ban

HALIFAX — As the fight against the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag ratchets up around the world, Atlantic Canada’s biggest municipality is looking to join the growing ranks of cities and countries banning, restricting or taxing single-use plastic bags.

Halifax council asked city staff to examine a plastic bag ban on Tuesday, a move that would follow the lead of Montreal, where single-use plastic bags were banned at the start of the year, and Victoria, where a ban takes effect July 1.

Under Victoria’s bylaw, businesses will not be permitted to provide customers with singleuse plastic bags.

Instead, they must offer paper bags and charge customers a minimum 15 cents, rising to 25 cents on July 1, 2019.

Victoria businesses can also supply reusable bags, which can be made of plastic and sold for a minimum of $1, rising to $2 on July 1, 2019. They will only be allowed to provide the paper or reusable bags if the customer requests it.

Halifax Mayor Mike Savage said he will also pen a letter to Nova Scotia’s premier calling for a provincewide ban on plastic bags — often called “Sobeys bags” in the Maritimes regardless of their provenance.

But the city is not waiting for the province to act, with Halifax solid-waste manager Matthew Keliher promising to report back to council within a year.

Plastic bags, which take centuries to break down, litter the environment and inundate the world’s oceans. They are also turning up in seafood, said Mark Butler of Halifax’s Ecology Action Centre.

“They are clogging our oceans, and can be a hazard to marine wildlife,” said Butler, policy director for the environmental advocacy organization.

“We’re finding microscopic plastic particles on the beach and in seafood.”

It’s a problem that has prompted such countries as France, Italy and China to implement restrictions, taxes and outright bans.