With the introduction of the City of Victoria’s plastic bag ban which came into effect July 1, the organization that spearheaded the ban is encouraging West Shore municipalities to do the same.
“I’m not hoping, I’m confident they will,” said Gillian Montgomery, manager of the Surfrider Foundation’s Vancouver Island chapter.
“We’ll obviously be supportive in helping the municipalities with education and outreach and the tools that they would need if they felt so inclined to contact us … I don’t think anyone can deny this at this point that it’s a problem and we need to all come together and come up with a solution.”
RELATED: City of Colwood considers plastic bag ban
Thus far, Colwood is the only municipality in the western communities to move forward with a similar ban. In November the City directed staff to adapt a bylaw put forward by the Capital Regional District to ban the sale and distribution of single-use plastic bags.
The issue will likely be revisted by council in August or September.
In View Royal, council agreed in principal to the idea sometime ago, but for now will take a wait-and-see approach.
“We were just going to see how it works in Victoria, how it goes and learn any lessons from that and then look at it again down the road,” said Mayor David Screech, adding retailers would need to be consulted as well. “Definitely philosophically we agreed that in the long run we should be moving away from single-use bags.”
RELATED: Customers encouraged to wean themselves off plastic bags by Jan. 1
The districts of Highlands and Metchosin are not looking at a plastic bag ban as there is only one retail store in Metchosin and none in the Highlands.
However, not everyone is on board. Langford Mayor Stew Young said there hasn’t been a push from his residents for a ban. He noted many people reuse plastic bags to hold garbage and implementing a ban would force them to purchase more bags.
Young also noted there could potentially be health concerns associated with using reusable bags. He referenced a study released last year by professors at the University of Pennsylvania and George Mason University that found San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags resulted in an increase in E. coli infections three months after the ban went into effect in 2007.
“The plastic bag ban, I’d just be cautious on that. I’m sure that because of the emotional movement of it and seeing all the plastic in the ocean that eventually this happen, but we need to monitor the safety aspect of it,” Young said.
RELATED: B.C. Supreme Court rules in favour of Victoria’s plastic bag ban
The City of Victoria’s plastic bag ban came into effect on Canada Day, but allows city merchants a grace period to hand out any remaining stock until Jan. 1, 2019. After that time, no plastic bags will be provided to customers outside of specialty categories listed in the bylaw. Any stores that hand out plastic bags could be handed out a fine between $50 and $10,000.
Instead, customers will be able to buy paper bags for 15 cents or a reusable bag for $1. Those prices will increase on July 1, 2019.
The ban hasn’t been without controversy. Earlier this year, the Canadian Plastic Bag Association challenged the ban, claiming it would “significantly impact” its members who manufacture and supply bags for the Victoria market. In June, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in favour of the City of Victoria and dismissed the legal challenge.
“Plastics break up, they don’t break down, so they break up into smaller and smaller pieces and they’re becoming too difficult for us to pick up,” said Montgomery, noting over the years she’s seen an increase in the amount of plastic washing up on local beaches.
“Once they’re getting that small, they’re getting into the food chain through mussels and oysters … It’s not just the plastic bags, that’s just one aspect of it.”