City committee chair wants to look at fees and bans to curb plastic bag use
Toronto needs a fresh look at fees or bans to reduce Torontonians’ use of plastic bags, disposable cups and coffee pods, says the parks and environment chair.
“Plastics in general are a real problem in our oceans and in lakes,” Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon said in an interview Friday. “We have waste diversion targets we have yet to reach, this is the way of the future, and there is no time like the present.” McMahon and Councillor Mike Layton are hoping to get city staff to report on options “including, but not limited to, municipal fees and prohibitions” to reduce usage, or increase recycling, of single-use: plastic bags, hot beverage cups and lids, coffee pods, black plastics often used for takeout foods, plastic straws and cutlery, and takeout food containers — especially plastic or Styrofoam ones that can’t be recycled.
McMahon won’t prejudge any staff advice but she personally prefers a focus on reducing waste — saying no to disposable plastics — rather than recycling. “Recycling is the last resort, we should be preventing the waste from occurring in the first place,” she said.
If Canada’s biggest city takes action on plastics, it would be following the lead of a growing number of other governments.
On Jan. 1Montreal became the first big Canadian city to ban the thin plastic bags handed out at many store checkouts. It covers the distribution of lightweight bags less than 50 microns thick, as well as additivetreated biodegradable bags, with an exception for thin bags used to take fruit and vegetables to the cash register. Last August, Montreal city council approved the ban, which includes a six-month grace period before those who distribute banned bags face fines as high as $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for corporations for a first offence.
Nova Scotia’s environment minister said this week he is “seriously considering” a province-wide ban or fees on plastic shopping bags. Iain Rankin also gave Halifax temporary permission to dump plastic in a landfill after that city’s only market for the waste — China — dried up.
Earlier this month Victoria approved a ban starting in July for business-distributed single-use plastic bags, with some exceptions.
Internationally, the European Union plans to make all plastic packaging across Europe recyclable or reusable by 2030.
Toronto is unique in having no efforts to curb plastic use beyond public education, with a history that includes a bag fee and an abandoned ban plan.
City council started requiring stores to charge for the bags in 2009. When then-mayor Rob Ford in 2012 asked councillors to scrap the charge, they surprised him, and many others, by voting to ban plastic bags outright instead. But, facing a lawsuit from the plastics industry, council scrapped the ban before it could be implemented.
The fee had helped cut the use of plastic bags by 53 per cent — 215 million bags — between 2009 and 2012. City staff later reported that, after customers stopped being forced to pay a nickel, they started grabbing a lot more plastic bags. The amount going into the city waste stream has remained about constant since then.
Emily Alfred of Toronto Environmental Alliance noted Ontario is moving toward a system where goods producers have to pay the cost of recycling them and “people are talking about this issue all around the world.”
She predicted consumers would, with help, embrace reusable bags, cups, mugs and even takeout food containers and straws. “If people think about the full cost of these, in terms of landfill and pollution, it will stop some of the mindless use of these products.”
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association‘s website argues that most shopping bags are reused and recycled, and that other measures to reduce the number of plastic bags have already been successful.