Environment

Toronto: No More 'Free' Plastic Grocery Bags

by Blue Crush | January 1, 2009 at 11:09 pm

336 views | 26 Recommendations | 5 comments

In June 2009, Toronto will become the first major Canadian metropolis to enact a bylaw forcing all retailers to charge at least five cents per plastic bag when buying groceries.

"I think attitudes are starting to change. It's already less acceptable to accept free carrier bags," said Vicki Foley, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods and Capers in Vancouver, the world's largest natural-food retailer. "Once people stop accepting plastic bags they become aware of other consumer packaging and they change their habits, insisting on less plastic and buying more whole foods."

This year, Canadians will face a range of incentives - from municipal bans to grocery store fees - aimed at coaxing them to rethink how they carry their shopping, as governments follow a global trend to divert billions of plastic bags away from landfills.
Opponents say the polyethylene bags are an ugly blight on the landscape and over-consumption of a product made with a non-renewable resource, while advocates say they are highly recyclable, play an important role in food safety and are more hygienic when used as rubbish bin liners.

The bylaw is part of a larger environmental plan to divert 70 percent of Toronto's waste from the landfill by 2010.

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Paschen

at 01:15 on January 2nd, 2009

Goodness, it is about time.

harringtola

at 07:18 on January 2nd, 2009

The plastic alternative to paper bags was the worst switch in history from an ecological perspective. I hope that we can turn this around. It is (as Paschen says) About Time!