Single-use item bylaw: should Edmonton increase fees for paper, reusable bags?
Posted January 20, 2024 1:23 pm.
Is Edmonton’s single-use item bylaw having the desired effect, and should the 15-cent fee for paper shopping bags be increased as a result?
That’s what Edmonton city council will begin discussing at Monday’s utility committee.
Since July 1, 2023, businesses are prohibited from offering single-use plastic bags and must instead charge customers 15 cents for paper bags and $1 for a reusable bag. Those fees are scheduled to increase to 25 cents and $2 on July 1, 2024.
The bylaw was imposed by the city to change Edmontonians’ behaviours and reduce waste. But are the fees, which are meant to increase gradually over two years, reducing the consumption of single-use items?
Coun. Tim Cartmell believes the single-use item fee is working as it was designed to, but feels the measure introduced in Edmonton should fall in line with other cities – or at last the surrounding communities.
“It would be nice to see some consistency either one way or the other, quite frankly,” said the councillor for Ward pihêsiwin. “Either we stand down on our fee, or the jurisdictions that surround us introduce one. Consistency in the Edmonton metro region would be really valuable so that people have a common set of expectations.”
The city claims bag fees are the “leading practice” to reducing single-use waste.
“Municipalities that banned plastic bags without sufficiently high bag fees on alternative products saw no or minimal reductions of bags in circulation,” a City of Edmonton document reads.
A survey conducted by the city suggests many Edmontonians aren’t on board with the single-use bylaw to help reduce waste.
- 45 per cent felt it is not a reasonable measure to reduce waste;
- 29 per cent felt it is somewhat reasonable;
- 25 per cent said it was reasonable.
Of the 7,917 people surveyed, 73 per cent said they usually or always bring their own reusable shopping bags when going to retail stores, such as when grocery shopping.
Many Edmontonians (62 per cent) say they’ve never brought their own reusable cup for beverages; and 70 per cent say they’ve never brought a reusable bag for takeout or drive-thru orders.
The results suggest more than half of respondents are “definitely likely” to bring their own bag or avoid a bag altogether if the existing fees are increased.
The report, which will be presented to council Monday, lists four options on how to move forward with the bylaw:
- Proceed with the planned bag fee increase;
- Delay increase by a year (to gather more data on waste reduction);
- Keep bag fees the same (the city says this could cause a “reputational risk”);
- Or increase the fees at retail locations, but not food service.
