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Victoria's plastic-bag ban in effect, shops get time to use up stock

Victoria’s new bag ban kicked in Sunday, but don’t expect the ubiquitous white plastic bags to suddenly disappear from all Victoria shop checkouts. Merchants still have another six months to deplete existing stocks of single-use plastic bags.
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The City of Victoria's ban on single-use plastic bags comes into effect on July 1, 2018.

Victoria’s new bag ban kicked in Sunday, but don’t expect the ubiquitous white plastic bags to suddenly disappear from all Victoria shop checkouts.

Merchants still have another six months to deplete existing stocks of single-use plastic bags.

“Sunday is the date that the bylaw comes into effect officially, but there’s two soft entry points related to how that’s going to work,” said Fraser Work, city director of engineering.

“Stores are allowed to use up any existing plastic bag stock that they would have purchased before,” he said. “So they can use up some old bag stock, but that only extends through the remainder of 2018.”

The second “soft entry point,” he said, is the fact that the city will not be enforcing the bylaw until January.

“We’re focused on allowing the community and the businesses this transition period so that they can adjust to what is a new behaviour change of having to think of and having to be prepared to bring your reusable bags with you,” he said.

That being said, change can be difficult.

“I think you’ll see a lot of stores will turn on a dime and they’ll be charging for paper [bags] and there will be no more plastic bags in their stores and you’ll see it right away,” Work said. Other stores might have quite a few plastic bags in stock and nothing will change for a while.

Under the bylaw, businesses may provide paper checkout bags if they tack on a minimum charge of 15 cents per bag (rising to 25 cents on July 1, 2019) and reusable checkout bags for a minimum charge of $1 per bag (rising to $2 in 2019).

“Those prices are to signal that any bag has a certain amount of value and we should think twice before wasting any type of bag,” Work said.

Don’t be surprised if merchants offer promotions that may include bags but you’ll likely find the bag fee itemized on your bill, which is a bylaw requirement.

Customers undoubtedly will also notice a lot of point of purchase information at the till outlining the bylaw provisions and, more importantly, who is behind it.

“What was really important for the businesses [was that the information include] who to call if you had a beef,” Work said. “One of the key comments that was made by the Chamber of Commerce, which resonates really strongly with us at the city, is that we want to avoid the debate at the till as to why this is happening.”

While the city’s initial focus will be on education and awareness, as of January enforcement will kick in and the city will issue fines to those not in compliance.

Under the bylaw an individual can be fined between $50 and $500, while a corporation can be fined between $100 and $10,000.

Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce CEO Catherine Holt is disappointed that the bylaw wasn’t done regionally instead of one municipality moving ahead on its own while 12 others take a wait and see approach.

The chamber is encouraging any municipalities that want to follow suit to adopt the Victoria bylaw. “What we are concerned about is not having a patchwork of 13 different bag reduction bylaws,” she said.

“What we’ve been seeing is some of our bigger members that have operations in various municipalities are doing that themselves. They’re saying we’re just going to do it across our whole operation. That’s great as long other municipalities don’t adopt different bylaws.”

And, while some have long been making the transition there will be members who will be caught unaware by the new bylaw, she said.

Jeff Bray, executive director of the Downtown Victoria Business Association, said there were lots of questions from his membership when the bylaw was passed in January, but that seems to have morphed into acceptance.

“Our sense is that our members are generally aware of it and have made the supply decisions with respect to their bag stock that they needed to. That’s our general sense but we’ll see what happens as the July 1 date passes.”

The need for the bylaw is clear, Work said. “We’re doing this to minimize waste in our community. We’re doing it to minimize plastic bag waste that quickly becomes waste after one or a few uses and we’re doing it to keep this type of waste out of our waste receptacles, out of our waste streams, off our beaches, out of our parks and out of our landfill.”

bcleverley@timescolonist.com