A group advocating for a ban on single-use grocery bags in Guelph will ask councillors to consider creating a bylaw when it appears before City Council next month.
Plastic Free Guelph will present its plan during the July 23 meeting of city council.
Shayne Ward, executive director of Plastic Free Guelph, said he is realistic about the time it will take to have the issue considered. The presentation to city council is only the first step in a months-long process, which would include public consultations and would no doubt create debate among residents and local businesses.
Victoria, B.C. is currently implementing a ban on single-use plastic bags within the city. Their bylaw goes into effect this summer.
“It’s really exciting watching what’s going on over there and hopefully bringing that to Ontario and making Guelph the first city in the province to eliminate single-use plastic bags,” said Ward.
Plastic Free Guelph’s mission was buoyed by an announcement earlier this year by the University of Guelph that it will be removing single-use plastic bags and straws from its campus.
“On July 23, when we go into this meeting, we can say look at this huge stakeholder of Guelph that represents one-sixth of our population,” said Ward. “The fact an institution like that is able to make that change — why can’t the rest of the city?”
Plastic Free Guelph was founded by Ward three years ago and in that time he has watched its campaign grow called Straws Suck, which seeks to have restaurants in the city offering alternatives to single-use plastic straws. To date, 10 local businesses have signed up.
Ward said one of those businesses, Miijidaa on Quebec Street, has seen impressive results by no longer offering single-use plastic straws.
“One year into the program of eliminating single-use plastic straws, they saved 21,000 straws from going to the landfill, which is approximately $200 in straws,” said Ward. “If that’s just one restaurant, and we have 10 that have committed to the program, that’s 200,000 straws we have diverted from the landfill.”
Ward hopes similar reductions of single-use plastic will result from the proposed bag ban.
In 2016, Plastic Free Guelph conducted a waste audit during a clean up of a one-hectare area on the University of Guelph campus. In a four-hour span, the group picked up 232 plastic bags.
“You think of Guelph as being an environmentally-conscious city and I am consistently blown away by the amount of garbage we end up picking up in four hours,” said Ward.
There are a number of alternatives to single-use plastic bags at the checkout counter, noted Ward, including paper bags, reusable cloth bags and reusable plastic bags.
“If you buy a reusable bag and use it 25 times, you have basically paid for that bag from the 25 single-use bags you would have had over that time,” said Ward.
His personal preference is toward reusable cloth bags.
The proposal will still allow for the smaller single-use clear bags for meat or fruits and vegetables.
“But the retail bag you get at the check out is the one we want to get rid of,” said Ward.
