On May 18, BLESS held their “World Migratory Bird Day” at Big Lake, a theme of the event was “you can be the solution ... to plastic pollution”. Ironically, the city was handing out blue PLASTIC Frisbees to the kids to promote lawn watering “be water wise”. May 18 was a windy day and unfortunately many of the plastic Frisbees ended up as plastic pollution in Big Lake.
Even more ironically, a week later city council approved the $96,000 study on how to reduce the use of single use plastic items like shopping bags, stir sticks, straws, etc. Not all these things are so-called single use, plastic shopping bags for example, current data from Vancouver states that 63 per cent of bags are reused for household garbage can liners or for pet waste. Ontario government data supports this with their data showing 60 per cent reuse on average and pet owners reuse higher at 85 per cent. So in reality, the vast majority of so-called “single” use plastic bags are really multiple use.
Rather than banning them, a proven strategy to reduce plastic shopping bags is to charge for them (many stores already do this). In the UK, they charge 10 cents for a bag, this drove a reduction by 86 per cent in the number of bags requested by customers. In 2002, Ireland introduced charges for bags, currently charging 25 cents each, this has decreased by 90 per cent the numbers of bags requested by customers ... plus as an additional environmental benefit customers see the bags have value and don’t throw them away, significantly reducing the bag litter by 40 TIMES, from five per cent to only 0.13 per cent of the litter collected from Ireland's coastline beaches.
When I need a plastic bag at a grocery store or hardware store or drug store, etc., it’s a product I am willing to pay for and it’s a product I reuse 100 per cent. If I didn’t have these bags for my garbage can liners or pet waste, etc., I would still have to buy and use them. Ironically, this would even be worse for the environment as I would be buying bags that are only used once for garbage, etc., vs. reusing my shopping bags.
If we are worried about plastic bags blowing around as litter a simple fix is to tie a knot in the bag, this prevents it from blowing around. As data shows single use plastic items make up only one per cent of the land fill. Plastic packaging makes up over 30 per cent, especially now that the city has severely limited the types of plastic that are acceptable in our blue bag recycling.
I fully acknowledge the risks of global climate change and take many personal steps to support the environment and our beautiful City. I hope the year long study will come up with some creative solutions. Maybe the city can lead by example by not handing out plastic promo items and maybe even a implement a trial of no single use plastic items at city venues like Starbucks or Booster Juice (bottled water, cups, lids, straws, stir sticks, etc.) at Servus Place.
Mike Killick, St. Albert
