Plastic bags are the topic of many conversations in Montreal these days, and some are getting heated.
Mayor Dennis Coderre wants to ban single-use plastic bags. If he gets his way, the city of Montreal will be the first city in Canada to go through with it.
Toronto tried a ban in 2013 but backed down when the idea was met with both a public outcry and a legal challenge from the plastics industry.
Alex Tyrell is the leader of the Quebec Green Party. He is in favour of the the ban as the global consumption of plastic bags is over 500 billion a year, and he says, the effect of these bags as they breakdown, is terrible for wildlife and the larger environent.
He says Canadians, as members of the North American throw-away society, must accept that their lifestyles will have to change to take action that will help save the environment.
ListenIn a debate on a CBC radio program, Pierre Dubois, a spokesperson for the Canadian Plastics Association, said there would be no legal challenge if Montreal decides to go ahead with the ban. He argued, however, that the idea of ‘single-use’ is wrong and that many people recycle their plastic bags in various ways, including reusing them at grocery stores in Montreal, where new ones cost five cents.
Indeed in Qubec, the five-cent charge imposed by major stores, and public awareness campaigns, have helped reduce plastic bag use by half.
Consultations will be held June 3rd and 4th and the 8th if necessary.
The CBC collected some facts to consider as Montrealers consider the issue:
1. Canadians take home 55 million plastic bags every week, according to a 2008 Parliament of Canada report. That works out to almost 3-billion each year.
2. Countries such as Bangladesh, Burma and Thailand have banned plastic bags because of flooding caused when the bags clog up storm sewers.
3. A plastic bag ban in California has been suspended pending a referendum on the subject in November 2016. The bag lobby gathered enough signatures to launch the referendum.
4. A study at the University of British Columbia found 93 per cent of beached northern fulmars, a migratory bird related to the albatross, had stomachs full of plastic.
5. Scientists at the University of Illinois have found it’s possible to convert plastic bags into diesel and natural gas.
6. Leaf Rapids, a town in northwest Manitoba, was the first Canadian municipality to ban single-use plastic bags back in 2007.
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.