LCBO should consider plastic bag ban: McGuinty

Ontario should seriously consider followingan example set by Nova Scotia and ban the province's liquor stores from handing out plastic bags that environmental activists are calling some of the worst in circulation, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Wednesday.

As Nova Scotia's liquor stores vow to phase out plastic bags by this fall, environmentalists say it's the least Ontario's provincially owned liquor stores could do to set an example for other retailers and keep plastic "environmental disasters" from ending up in landfills.

"I think we should give that some real consideration," McGuinty said Wednesday, adding thatthe Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is already trying to be more environmentally responsible with its bottle-return program.

"We're proud of the leadership that the LCBO has shown and working with us in terms of our bottle-return policy. I believe they do issue some kind of canvas bags at this point in time. It's something that obviously we should take a look at."

Nova Scotia's liquor stores are aggressively phasing out plastic bags by this fall, offering customers free cloth bags if they buy three bottles of wine this month. In the meantime, the liquor stores say they will issue bags made from 40 per cent recycled material.

The Manitoba government also announced in March that it had stopped replacing its liquor stores' supplies of plastic bags, leaving customers with a choice of paper or reuseable polypropylene bags.

If Ontario is serious about keeping plastic bags out of landfills, critics and environmentalists say it would make the LCBO a role model for other Ontario retailers.

LCBO bags 'horrendous': environmentalist

Environment Minister John Gerretsen said all government departments and agencies should set a good example when it comes to the environment. The province will be "pushing forward" with ways to help people stop using so many plastic bags, he said.

"Whatever we can do to improve the environment and to increase recycling, is what we should be striving towards," Gerretsen said. "As time goes along, you'll see more and more programs."

Ontario has introduced a voluntary plan to eliminate one billion bags from circulation by 2012 by asking retailers to train staff to double-bag less often and to offer alternatives such as paper bags and reusable cloth carriers.

But Rick Smith, executive director of Environmental Defence, said Ontario needs to wage a much more aggressive war on plastic bags. The LCBO with its thick, glossy plastic bags that are often handed out together with paper bags is one of the worst offenders, he added.

"They're horrendous," Smith said. "I'm quite certain that one million years from now, future archeologists will be digging through garbage heaps in southern Ontario and still be finding LCBO plastic bags."

The LCBO is a government agency that is incredibly lucrative, devoted to serving the public and has "pretensions to greenness," Smith said.

"If the LCBO refuses to do this, no retailer is going to do this," he said.