Plastics industry says people, not plastic bags, are the problem

A plastic bag ban could be coming to the City of Victoria and the Canadian Plastics Industry Association says it's a huge mistake.

City council approved a motion last monthto consider a bylaw that would stop retailers from providing single-use plastic bags. The plastics industry saysit is not the bags that are the problem, it's the people who don'trecycle them.

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Craig Foster, a sustainability consultant for the CPIA, told On The Island host Gregor Craigie B.C. has a highly efficient recycling system and encouraging people to make better use of it would help reduce plastic waste.

"In B.C., we have product stewardship. Specifically to the packaging and the plastic shopping bag, Recycle B.C. has a provincewide system in place that uses both the depot and the return-to-retail for those materials," said Foster.

Use the system

He said the system has been developed over 30 years and is "the best in North America, if not the world."

Foster also said if British Columbians made better use of the recycling system itcould help set a global example.

'There [are] significant contributions from elsewhere in the world and what is happening here is the way to solve that problem," said Foster, who added it is people, not plastic material, thatisthe issue.

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The City of Victoria says 17 million plastic bags are used every yearby Victoria residents alone, many of which end up in the landfill, waterwaysand on the local beaches.

Foster argues some of those bags have already served multiple purposes, such as shopping bags that have been re-used as garbage bags.

'Are we talking about bags that are used as trash bags? That is a different story than saying 17 million have been thrown away."

Fees not freebies

According to Foster, theCIPA would not be opposed to a mandatory deposit fee on single-use plastic bags.

"The concept that you pay is no problem and if that encourages people to stop and think about what they do and how they do it, that's great," said Foster.

City councilis currently inviting review and comment on the draftbylaw from retail businesses, stakeholders and the public and will report its findings in December.

Feedback can be submitted toengage@victoria.ca

With files from On The Island.

To hear the complete interviewclick on the audio labelled Plastics industry responds to proposed bag ban