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Aug 23,2006

By Jeff Nagel Black Press
Aug 23 2006

A proposed tax on plastic shopping bags is getting a cool reaction from the chair of the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

Lois Jackson says she isn’t sure if she can support the idea when civic leaders vote on it at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in October.

“I’m kind of torn,” she said. “It’s difficult because we seem to be legislating everyone to death.”

The resolution going to UBCM doesn’t specify an amount, but suggests patterning the levy on a 15 cent tax now in place in Ireland – that would work out to more than 20 cents per bag here.

If backed by the UBCM, it would remain up to the provincial and possibly federal governments to actually implement – and B.C. environment minister Barry Penner so far won’t say what he would do.

Jackson said she would have trouble with a per bag charge as high as 20 cents.

“It’s going to certainly add to the cost of your grocery bill,” she said. “I think you should start smaller and build rather than try to change the public all of a sudden and make a lot of people angry.”

Something closer to two cents a bag would be a better idea initially, she said, and would still send a strong message to consumers of the need to recycle.

Jackson said her grandmother used cloth bags but added that was easier when most people used to shop for small amounts nearly every day.

Today’s families are more likely to make large shopping expeditions once a week or so and Jackson says they’re unlikely to outfit themselves with large numbers of cloth bags.

The proposed tax is being spearheaded by the District of North Vancouver, which argues the Irish version immediately cut bag consumption by 90% while pumping $10 million a year into a green fund for environmental initiatives.

It’s actually just one of four separate resolutions on plastic bags coming to UBCM in October:

• Port Moody has sponsored a similar resolution citing the Irish experience and calling for “a full-cost accounting environmental fee on plastic shopping bags.”

• Kamloops urges an “eco fee” be charged on all plastic bags with proceeds going to a green fund.

• Vancouver also has a resolution requesting “excessive packaging” of items like shopping bags, disposal cups, dishes, styrofoam packing, bubble wrap and plastic film packaging be reduced through product stewardship recycling programs.

Another resolution from the GVRD calls for the container deposit-refund system to be extended to milk, milk substitutes and meal replacement receptacles.

Advocates of a bag tax note Greater Vancouver consumes 24,000 tonnes of film plastic bags each year, with 98% of it going to landfills – despite options to recycle.

Plastic industry lobbyists have countered, saying the Irish now buy four times more garbage bags and pet litter liners and say the tax could prompt more consumers to pick paper bags, which take more energy to produce and transport.

They also say Irish shoplifters have gone on a stealing spree, loading up carts and simply leaving the store, posing as customers who have paid for purchases but not bags.

“Ultimately it is the consumer who ends up paying these costs through higher product prices,” said Cathy Cirko of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association.

The Recycling Council of B.C. executive director Brock Macdonald says a dedicated tax isn’t the best idea – if any action is required at all.

“With something that goes straight into government revenues like a tax, you never know for sure where it’s going and what it’s doing,” he said.

Instead, he says B.C.’s existing Recycling Regulation, which governs extended producer responsibility for various other products, could easily be extended to plastic bags.

That would ensure the bags are recycled at the cost of retailers and consumers, he said, although it wouldn’t necessarily have a fee visible to shoppers.

“If this issue needs to be addressed – and we’re not convinced it does – it needs to fall under the Recycling Regulation,” Macdonald said.

He said many people reuse their bags and many supermarkets take back bags for recycling and some cities offer curb-side pickup.

Some stores already charge a few cents each for bags, he said, while other chains offer small discounts to those who bring their own bags.

Macdonald said there’s no evidence plastic bags are a serious ocean pollution problem – something tax fans claim – and he said plastic bags aren’t a major part of the local waste stream.

“It’s less than 1% of what goes into landfills,” he said.

A much higher priority is finding a way to stop electronic waste – such as computers and TVs that can leach metals and toxins – from going into landfills.

The province has authorized an industry-led recycling system that’s expected to come with a fee of at least $20 on a new computer system. It’s slated to take effect next summer.

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