Last night, I wrote about Toronto’s war on the plastic bag. Tonight, Toronto City Council voted to eliminate the 5 cent bag fee, effective July 1, 2012. However, they also voted 24-20 to ban plastic bags in the City of Toronto by January 1, 2013. If you wondered how people without bags were going to carry their groceries, they have decided that retailers should give out free paper bags instead (which has always been an option). This is fine if you’re buying something light and dry like clothing, but it will be gross for carrying leaky meat packages. And dog owners, if you have to use paper bags to stoop and scoop…yuck.
I don’t know why these city councillors detest plastic so much. They have already banned water bottles at all City parks, facilities, and Civic Centres. What have they done to eliminate styrofoam food containers, which are a lot worse for the environment? At least plastic can be recycled!
Update: Here is a clip from the CBC National News regarding this topic. (Old friends will remember the reporter as our friend and neighbour.)
Mayor Ford wanted to eliminate the plastic bag fee because the people of Toronto do not want it, and so council went along with that but then decided to eliminate them all together witch is irresponsible because they never bothered to assess the impact of this ban or jobs that will be lost as a result.
Maybe they will be looking for a job come next election.
Thanks for your comment. I agree that the motion was irresponsible. Councillors attempting to retaliate against the Mayor and/or grandstand for the next election (ie. Shiner and Stintz) end up hurting more people than just the mayor himself. The large retailers will not suffer, it’s the small businesses and restaurants who won’t be able to afford the alternatives to plastic bags.