Metro Vancouver board wants provincial ban on plastic bags

The Metro Vancouver board passed a resolution Friday asking the B.C. government to ban single-use disposable shopping bags.

Representatives from the grocery and retail industry attended a board meeting in Burnaby and discussed the impact of plastic waste on the environment.

"We are concerned about it. We want to find solutions to this problem, and we really want the provincial government to be working on this," said Metro Vancouver director Marvin Hunt, who chaired the meeting.

The Surrey councillor said the industry agreed to try to be part of a solution to reducing plastic waste.

"The industry agrees and wants to work on a 50 per cent reduction in plastic shopping bags in five years," Hunt said.

"The pushback coming from Metro board members [is] basically saying we'd like to see it sooner, faster and going further."

The Metro Vancouver board, which consists of 36 directors representing 21 municipalities, is urging municipal councils to issue their own individual ban requests to the province in order to give its resolution more teeth, Hunt said.

The board's resolution also recommends the municipalities work with business associations, retailers and consumers to discourage the use of disposable shopping bags.