How soon will plastic bag fees become the norm?
By Jason Buckland, Sympatico / MSN Finance
Once upon a time, your local university’s health clinic wasn’t the only place you could get your hands on free plastic.
But that was then, and now – in the midst of another major grocery chain announcing it will start taxing the use of its single-use shopping bags – you might not be able to find the material for free any longer.
Grocery giant Metro, which operates about 600 stores in Ontario and Quebec, has said it will charge five cents per bag at all checkouts starting June 1.
By doing so, they will join the ranks of Loblaws and Sobeys (even though Sobeys only levies the fee in Ontario) as major retailers to adopt the tax.
Yet while we might have predicted other grocery stores would jump on the plastic charge bandwagon, the date of Metro’s free bag ban is significant for a whole other reason.
June 1 is the same day the City of Toronto will begin to force stores, not just supermarkets, to charge for single-use plastic bags.
And while it’s, admittedly, only one city, the Star says environmentalists think the rest of Canada will soon follow suit.
“I think after the city of Toronto’s program is implemented, you’ll see it across the board,” the Recycling Council of Ontario’s executive director tells the newspaper.
“Especially for the national chains, they don’t tend to launch programs … by jurisdiction, they tend to do it nationally. It’s easier for them.”
Of course, there’s naturally a bit of resistance to the movement away from plastic bags. While the left-leaning Toronto was sure to act accordingly, it turns out Calgarians, for example, don’t want to be pushed around on the issue.
A “wide-ranging city report” shown in the Calgary Herald says that charging a tax on plastic shopping bags (or even banning them altogether) would be wildly unpopular, going so far as to suggest the change would be “legally hard to justify.”
Well, it turns out that report only registered feedback from a mere 300 Calgarians, so it’s tough to put a lot of weight into its findings. Still, you have to admire the city’s will.
While cutting back on the waste of landfill-clogging bags is a no-brainer, maybe banning them altogether isn’t exactly the right course of action. People do, believe it or not, re-use these bags and, when it boils down to it, should probably have the choice as to which type of material they want to shove their $200 of groceries in every other week.
But, how long will that remain the case?
Posted by: J Lindon | May 19, 2021 4:35:22 AM
So what do I put my garbage in? My city has a bylaw against putting raw garbage at the curb for pick-up. It has to go in a plastic bag. When I go grocery shopping and use those "green" bags, then I have to buy plastic anyways to bag my garbage. Before, I always had my groceries bagged in plastic bags. I used most of them to bag my garbage and the rest reused at the store or for something else.
Posted by: George Tripp | May 19, 2021 10:59:34 AM
Plastic bags are convenient but a scourge in the landfill. In Ontario we are trying to significantly reduce our garbage and how said garbage is disposed of. I am not surprised that oil rich Calgarians would not agree. Once you get used to carrying reusable bags ( this takes time) the system works.
Posted by: Leslie | May 19, 2021 11:04:42 AM
I don't mind using "green bags" for grocery shopping, I have been doing so for some time now. However I do have a problem (in the future if they totally ban plastic bags or all retailers jump on the band wagon) should I go to the mall and make a purchase and be charged for a shopping bag. I don't feel that I should have to carry around "green" bags everytime I go out, just incase I might buy something. Why don't we just go back to using paper bags at retail stores like we use to! I think the bottom line is that there are options, but why do they always choose to hit folks in the pocket book? Have the retailers droped instore prices to reflect the new bag policy...nope! They have just added additional costs to folks who choose not to be "green" or who make a unplanned stop and may not have "green" bags in hand. Maybe retailers should do like Tim Hortons...If you bring your own bags you should get 10 cents of your purchase for each bag. Tim Hortons gives you 10 cents off a hot beverage when you bring in your reuseable mug.
Posted by: Katalin | May 19, 2021 11:16:10 AM
Charging for plastic bags is not the answer to save the environment.
Plastic grocery bags should be banned. The stores should provide biodegradable bags at a fair
cost. That would be environmentally healthy. But to charge for the same bad bags ... at
least please don't put your logo on them anymore, we don't want to promote you at our cost.
There are a lot more ways to save the environment than to start charging for bags.
What about green roofs, and more trees please.....
Posted by: Sue | May 19, 2021 11:52:45 AM
The one thing stores have overlooked with the bring your own bags is that we buy less - speaking for myself I have six bags and I watch what I am buying so the bags do not get too heavy to carry and also so everything I buy fits in those six bags - no more impulse buying here only what I need - they have unwittingly shot themselves in the foot - they should have implemented a credit of 5 cents for every bag you bring instead, then still have plastic availible if you over purchase perhaps - after all the 5 cents is already factored into the cost of doing business and has been taken into account on the mark up so now they are dble dipping by charging more money on top of what they have already factored into their daily operating costs - has anyone thought of that.
Posted by: Bill | May 19, 2021 12:10:43 PM
How about this! If the stores won't supply shopping bags anymore, what does my garbage go into? I quess I will need to buy 'Kitchen Catchers' or something like that for more money than the 5 cents a bag they are proposing for the shopping bags. If the 5 cents a bag is supposed to be a tax to deal with the shopping bags going into the landfill, then how am I better off paying more for a brand name garbage bag that will still end up in the dump! Once again, this is just one BIG tax grab labelled as a green initiative that has so many people believing that this is the answer; just bring your reusables and the world will be a better place. I can't see how plastic shopping bags are 'clogging up' our land fill sights any faster than all the other crap that gets disopsed of there.
Posted by: linda | May 19, 2021 12:17:11 PM
Plastic bags are resuable - great for garbage bags, shoe bags, dust covers, etc. There should NOT be a charge for plastic bags -- give a credit for each reuseable bag. Last week I purchased meat products which leaked -- I asked for a plastic bag....the cashier had to go to the produce section to get a bag for the meat as she would have to charge me 5 cents for a bag? Rather than look at a problem rationally, officials jump on a topic and get silly with ideas. Banning plastic shopping bags are not realistic....consumer awareness is the logical approach....let us have the freedom to choose. Reuse, recycle not too difficult regardless of what bag one chooses.
Posted by: Christopher Deane | May 19, 2021 12:17:23 PM
WOW! All of five cents! Maybe intially this will move those who have been fence sitters in the bag game but how will it discourage everyone else?
Apparently not at all! Adding a nickel to the cost of the groceries per bag is a mere nothing in today's money values. When a nickel was half the cost of a telephone call and a newspaper then it meant something. Today... adding another 25 cents, a quarter, to the cost of $120 in groceries at a supermarket is ridiculous. It's another one of the half-measures to no-measures that governments seem to employ to seem "pro" something. Cigarettes are an anexcellent example! They are so BAD that it is illegal to SMOKE then almost everywhere but no government has yet to ban them outright.
In reality the 5 cents is just another tax added to all the other taxes that government has added here and there and everywhere to boost their coffers.
Long live hypocracy!
Posted by: MARJORIE KEDDY | May 19, 2021 2:13:29 PM
DO YOU KNOW THE PROFIT THESE GROCERY STORES ARE MAKING NOW- DO THEY PASS IT ON
TO THE SHOPPER? WAKE UP PEOPLE, WHEN THE STORES PROVIDE A BAG FOR THE GOODS WE
PURCHASE FROM THEM, BE IT PAPER OR OTHERWISE, THAT IS THE SHOPPERS RIGHT.
WILL THE GROCERY STORES STOP PACKAGING IN PLASTICS? ( MEATS, SALADS ETC. ETC.), I DON'T THINK SO...WHY IS IT THE MENTALITY TO ALWAYS START WITH THE LITTLE GUY?- THE
GROCERY SHOPPERS? SHALL WE EXPECT A DROP IN PRICES- GOOD LUCK.
Posted by: W. Turner | May 19, 2021 2:25:15 PM
Wow ... In order to cut cost, increase their bottom lines and bonus cheques grocers scrapped the use of biodegradable paper bags and embraced the plasic bag ... Leadership at its best. Now in a publicity effort to take on the image of our environment's corporate saviors ... they're semi-scraping plastic bags (optionally available for a token enviro-fee) and encouraging all to save our environment anew ... by purchasing @ $1 a pop (Made in China? ... for pennies ... Enviro-reusable bags). I sense another healthy cost cut to you know who's bottom lines and a string of healthy bonus cheques on the horizon. How many Enviro-reusable bags have these business monguls sold? We've purchased and use them regularly ... contributing to ever increasing enviro-service profit lines. Have business leaders adopted government policy ... cut-cut-cut the services raise the taxes-usage-fees?
Posted by: W. Turner | May 19, 2021 2:27:32 PM
Wow ... In order to cut cost, increase their bottom lines and bonus cheques grocers scrapped the use of biodegradable paper bags and embraced the plasic bag ... Leadership at its best. Now in a publicity effort to take on the image of our environment's corporate saviors ... they're semi-scraping plastic bags (optionally available for a token enviro-fee) and encouraging all to save our environment anew ... by purchasing @ $1 a pop (Made in China? ... for pennies ... Enviro-reusable bags). I sense another healthy cost cut to you know who's bottom lines and a string of healthy bonus cheques on the horizon. How many Enviro-reusable bags have these business monguls sold? We've purchased and use them regularly ... contributing to ever increasing enviro-service profit lines. Have business leaders adopted government policy ... cut-cut-cut the services raise the taxes-usage-fees?
Posted by: Mike Pankiw | May 19, 2021 2:43:08 PM
In Alberta, Superstore (Loblaw's) has been charging for plastic bags since they moved out here. The odd time I shop there, I bring my own. The concept must work.
Contrary to popular belief, grocery stores are not making fistfuls of profit: retail grocery business is a pennies margin game. These retailers try to get their competitive advantage through bulk buying and in operating costs e.g. staff salaries and benefits. Will charging for bags improve margins? Of course, but isn't this all about saving the world? Funny how saving the planet is a problem if it causes a minor inconvenience or a quarter a week.
Posted by: J Grimwood | May 19, 2021 2:44:24 PM
If the 5 cent charge is a tax is the government ( I'm not sure who is doing the taxing) putting the money towards green initiatives? I am particularly incensed at the commercial where Galen Weston says his chain is doing their bit to help the environment by charging 5 cents a bag. Unless this money is being put to some use to help the environment that they haven't told us about, I agree that it is just a money grab.
I was in Milwaukee a few years back and had the occaision to do some grocery shopping. The groceries were put in paper bags with handles. Too bad they didn't think of that here.
If grocery bags don't belong in a landfill, do garbage bags? i don't believe they break down either.
Posted by: J Grimwood | May 19, 2021 2:44:39 PM
If the 5 cent charge is a tax is the government ( I'm not sure who is doing the taxing) putting the money towards green initiatives? I am particularly incensed at the commercial where Galen Weston says his chain is doing their bit to help the environment by charging 5 cents a bag. Unless this money is being put to some use to help the environment that they haven't told us about, I agree that it is just a money grab.
I was in Milwaukee a few years back and had the occaision to do some grocery shopping. The groceries were put in paper bags with handles. Too bad they didn't think of that here.
If grocery bags don't belong in a landfill, do garbage bags? i don't believe they break down either.
Posted by: suzanne dragatsi | May 19, 2021 2:51:28 PM
Why not oblige grocery stores and all other stores to supply biodegradable bags free of charge?
Better for the government to pay for biodegradable bags than for curing infections caused by disposing of garbage as is.
Who will be responsible for creating this incrdible dirty country, and how hygienic will it be to throw garbage as is?
Just tell me how the environment will benefit from no plastic bags for garbage.
Posted by: John Husband | May 19, 2021 3:09:17 PM
The argument that charging for plastic bags will reduce their use and be more environmentaly friendly is nothing more that a red herring. If the super markets really want to make a difference charge for plastic bags and delist the small plastic garbage bags that go into waste cans. This is no more than a pay me now or pay me later scam.
Posted by: Alan Gassor | May 19, 2021 3:14:17 PM
Considering the carbon footprint of the "re-usable" product, what are we gaining??
Charging for a grocery bag is irrelevant - it's already paid for. We take home loads of items, all placed in....plastic bags! plastic packages, plastic wrap, plastic cartons. Give me an easy way to recycle them & I will. Plastic bags don't break down quickly in a landfill but they take up very little volume and they ARE IN THE LANDFILL which is carefully & professionally controlled, so it doesn't matter!!
Plastic bags and other light objects, including paper products, are a bigger problem blowing around our neighborhoods! People with arrogant attitudes, whether homeowners, contractors or builders,dumping illegally on other's property, ditches and open areas are a bigger problem than the lowly grocery bag!
Posted by: AJ | May 19, 2021 3:30:37 PM
This is just another form of profit taking the CORPORATE PSYCHOPATHS have dreamed up. To most people these bags are NOT single use! Has anyone considered how this affects the poor! How about lowering the price of food, especially food that has plastic packaging, since it is the tax payers that utimately pays for garbage disposal.
And let's not forget how consumers are treated now with lower transportation costs, yah you guessed it, price freezes! Failing to react has let these monsters off the lease, and corporations must be paying off politicians to back them. Cash incentives most often interupts intelligent thought.
How about people start loading up carts with food, and when they get to the checkout refuse to pay for bags, and just walk away! I would bet they change that policy quick enough.
Posted by: Wayne | May 19, 2021 5:02:01 PM
They started this last month here in NS. And then they sell you a basket that can't hold much for $4.99 and Nylon Bags for $1.99, all this is, is a money grab, give a customer smaller portions for a higher price and then make them pay to bag it. GREED is all it is, same as for Oil and other so called service fees, we are being nickled and dime'd to death. Enough already, give us a break.
Posted by: JWJ | May 19, 2021 5:13:01 PM
From a plastics bag supplier.. Toronto is so backwards.. First of all..From what I've heard from customers.. is that they will charge the $0.05 per bag, but the city will not collect the money.. but as of June 1st they have to charge it.. They just have to keep it in the store records as a income for the bags, and if thy are EVER audited.. and the city sees that they have not charged this.. They get a fine.. I have customers who have stores in Toronto, which they have to charge and then they have another store above Steels.. Markham.. and they don't have to charge.. This is nuts.. Now customers are jumping to paper, which costs 10 times as much depending on the type of plastic bags the used.. There goes the tree's.. What a joke..
Then there is the Bio-Degradable bags.. Which are meant to break down after a certain time in the land fills.. But the problem with this is.. that Manufactureres of bags charge more for the Bio than Regular film.. So you have some going with it, and some not.. because of price.. There is no regulation on this product.. All Canadian manufacturers should be made to get rid of the Regular film and make Bio/Degradable manditory across the board.. But since there is no regulated body to push this.. There is a total confusion on what is what and what should be used..
This also goes with the Recycling program.. We can put regular film in the bins, but not Bio/Degradable film bags.. Because the recyclers don't want the Bio/Degradable film/cemicals mixed with the recycling program..
I have never seen such a group of idiots who no nothing about nothing who think they are doing the best for everyone..