City mum on results of bag tax
But stores have seen big reduction in plastic bag use
Most Torontonians want to do right by the environment and the city is doing its part by creating policies like the five-cent plastic bag fee aimed at reducing the number of shopping bags that end up in landfills.
The program went into effect on June 1 and midtown councillor Michael Walker wants to know how successful it has been.
The short answer is we don’t know yet.
Geoff Rathbone, the city’s general manager for solid waste, says he’ll be reporting back to the city after he’s collected a year’s worth of data.
However, industry has released some early numbers that show the fee seems to be working as planned.
Metro grocery stores have reported that as of June 29 there was already a 70 percent reduction in plastic bags compared to the monthly average.
Loblaw, which introduced the bag charge back in January, has reported a 75 percent reduction in plastic bags.
It remains to be seen if this reduction was just initial reaction to the nickel charge and if consumers will embrace alternatives such as reusable bags or carts.
According to 2005 audit data by Stewardship Ontario we use 457 million retail plastic shopping bags in the province each year. I will be interested to see if there’s a breakdown for our city and how much that number has gone down.
Personally, I’ve tried hard to reduce my plastic bag use for the past two and half years. That’s when I started carrying cloth bags I was down to 6-12 plastic bags a year.
But it was not until this past June 1 when the five-cent charge kicked in that I was really determined to report to readers that I haven’t purchased one single plastic bag during my shopping expeditions. As of Oct. 5, I haven’t accumulated any new plastic retail bags.
Originally city staff proposed that retailers credit customers 10 cents every time they did not take a plastic bag. But the industry fought back and Loblaw proposed to Mayor David Miller the five-cent charge per bag instead.
By the way, if you do take plastic bags and don’t reuse them, they can be recycled in the blue box.
So what do you think? Is this new five-cent bag charge changing plastic use in this city? Let me know at kscheuer@mytowncrier.ca.
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On Nov 8, 2009 , TownHALL Member[GPCGreen] said:
I personally am glad to see more people carrying cloth bags. It is striking how often I see the new bags replacing plastic. This initiative seems to be having a very positive impact. Last weekend the St. Paul's Green Party did a clean-up of Oriole Park and the Beltline Trail and most of what we picked up were old plastic bags. Every little bit helps! Thanks for reporting on this important initiative. I look forward to seeing more results.
Debborah Donnelly
Green Party of Canada Candidate
St. Paul's
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