Three years after a plastic bag reduction campaign saw the distribution of one free reusable shopping bag to every household in Squamish, a survey is set to take place in June to find out if the effort was effective.
Greener Footprints, the not-for-profit society that co-ordinated the 2009 initiative, will survey local businesses and residents to determine what the changes have been in plastic bag use. The group hopes to have results from the survey compiled by the end of the summer.
"I can say anecdotally as an observer there have been major changes in Squamish," said Greener Footprints board member and Capilano University instructor Jen Reilly. "The number of people you see with reusable bags in the stores now compared to three years ago is, I would say, significant."
The Squamish campaign also included education and outreach. Volunteers met with community groups and visited classrooms to teach why reusable bags are preferred over plastic. Council at the time endorsed the campaign with a $10,000 donation, which went toward the bag distribution program. The goal was a 50 per cent reduction by 2010 in plastic retail bag use but, being a volunteer-driven organization with a province-wide mandate, the group wasn't able to survey Squamish by the target date, Reilly said.
Greener Footprints, which helped Rossland residents achieve a 75 per cent reduction in plastic bag use in less than a year, is also working with Revelstoke.
The society's website states that every year Canadians use more than 9 billion plastic shopping bags - 17,000 per minute. The bags are known to kill wildlife, never biodegrade and are made from a non-renewable resource, petroleum.
"We don't really like plastic bags," said Pat Taylor. Taylor is the controller for Carney's Waste Systems, which provides waste removal and recycling services to the Sea to Sky region. She said Carney's promotes the use of reusable bags in all of its literature.
"They [plastic bags] are a headache," Taylor said. "They're not friendly when they do end up in the landfill, and they do create the largest amount of contamination together with some of the other plastics, sixes and sevens, that have food in them."
People tend to use plastic bags to bag their recycling, she said, and there is often garbage or food waste within the plastic bag that contaminates other parts of the load.
Although many Squamish residents have expressed their desire for an outright ban, said Reilly, municipalities in B.C. are not permitted by the Province to ban them. A number of countries have banned plastic bags including Italy, China and South Africa. Seattle outlawed plastic bags in December.
The Ministry of Environment (MOE) is cautious about using a ban on single-use plastic bags to influence consumer behaviour, Ministry of Environment communications officer Suntanu Dalal told The Chief in an email. An amendment made to the Recycling Regulation in May 2011 shifted the responsibility for plastic bag recycling to the industry's producers and consumers, he said. By Nov. 19, 2012, producers of plastic bags must submit a product stewardship plan to the MOE and implement it by May 2014.
"While it is generally known that plastic bags are not readily degradable," he said, "a ban on plastic bags could result in an increase in consumption of bags purchased solely for the purpose [of collecting household waste] and may not achieve the desired environmental benefits."
At Newport Market on Cleveland Avenue, customers are encouraged to bring their own bags and containers, and most people do, said owner Greg Fischer. If he has any leftover bags from deliveries, he will re-use them by handing them out. His customers are also given the option of taking a biodegradable bag, which Fischer supplies free of charge.
But Reilly said Greener Footprints advises against the use of biodegradable bags.
"People unfortunately believe they're doing something good," she said. "The problem is the plastic industry has created these [bags] but they're not actually biodegradable; they do what's called photodegrade and what that means is they don't compost."
Unlike compostable bags, which break down and become soil, the plastic in photodegradable bags simply breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, which eventually enter the food chain. Animals often mistake the pieces for food.
"It's really incredible; I shake my head," said Fischer after hearing Greener Footprint's verdict on the biodegradable bags, noting disappointedly the additional expense the "biodegradable" tag was costing him.
"It's challenging for consumers who want to do something good and they don't know what to do," Reilly concluded. "Paper is a better alternative than plastic, recyclable plastic is a better alternative than photodegradable plastic, and reusable is the best."
To learn more about plastic bag reduction and Greener Footprints, visit www.greenerfootprints.com.
