Buying a cup of coffee to go could cost you at least 25 cents more in Guelph than surrounding areas if city council approves proposed updates to how the municipality handles solid waste.
The cost of buying reusable grocery bags could go up by a buck two.
Introducing those fees, as of March 2024, is among the staff-recommended updates to the Solid Waste Management Master Plan to be presented to council during its committee of the whole meeting on April 4.
“The fees are not going to come back to the city. They’re for the business to use in a way that helps the core of this program,” said Jennifer Rose, the city’s general manager of environmental services. “We’re going to be encouraging businesses to use those fees toward environmental initiatives they can do within their own business. We’re not going to be forcing them.”
Single-use coffee cups are not recyclable and should be placed in grey waste bins destined for landfill, notes the Guelph Waste Cart User Guide. Plastic lids on cups are typically recyclable.
If ultimately approved, a bylaw will be crafted requiring businesses to collect those fees and to include the new charge as a line item of all receipts, as well as noted on menus. That money, Rose hopes, would be spent on reusable container and utensil programs, staff training and more.
The fees are the second part of a waste reduction plan that would see “the most problematic” single-use items banned in the city as of next March. They include things such as plastic shopping bags and plastic straws, along with polystyrene foam cups and takeout containers.
In combination with the proposed fee of “at least $1” on reusable shopping bag sales, the city plans to launch some sort of bag-sharing program with neighbourhood groups and others to ensure it doesn’t create a barrier to their use.
“What we’ve come up with is working with local organizations for a bag-sharing program. An example is a bag bank,” Rose said. “We may work with businesses and non-profit organizations to have bag banks for people to pick up reusable bags that they can then take to the stores.
“We’re not quite sure what it would look like yet, but I know we could come up with a positive solution for everybody.”
Rose said the proposed implementation of those fees was intentionally set about two years into the future in order to allow those plans to be developed.
“We wanted to make sure there was enough time for businesses to adjust and also for us to have time to set up the program so that it was successful.”
