500 days in, Edmonton has written 0 tickets under single-use bag, plastics bylaw

Tuesday marked 500 days since Edmonton City Council banned plastic shopping bags and Styrofoam containers and still no tickets had been written for violations.

The single-use items bylaw was approved by councillors last year in an effort to reduce waste and litter.

It also put a price on paper and reusable bags and requires staff to ask people if they want cutlery, napkins, and ketchup packets before providing them.

A spokesperson confirmed to CityNews that 55 “education letters” had been sent to non-compliant businesses.

The City has also launched an online survey to get feedback from residents and businesses people.

“We bring reusable bags to the grocery store, so I don’t see why it’s a problem,” Edmontonian Darby Smith told CityNews during a public-survey-type interview on Whyte Avenue.

“I think the change has already happened. So, you gotta just get on the boat. It’s not that hard,” added her relative Mackenzie Smith.

“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. So I’m forgetting the bag all the time and I end up buying extra bags,” Trent Oster said.

The mayor believes the bylaw is working, to a point, because he’s seeing more people bring reusable bags to grocery stores.

Still, Amarjeet Sohi told CityNews Tuesday he’s always been open to tweaking the rules after getting more feedback.

“I have seen people change their behaviour (at grocery stores) but I don’t know about the drive-thru,” Sohi said.

Coun. Erin Rutherford says the rules are either confusing or many businesses are just choosing to ignore them.

“People dining in are still getting disposable cups (for example). So I’m having a hard time anecdotally seeing the impact this bylaw is having,” Rutherford said.

The bylaw needs to be taken to the trash, argues the manager of the Whyte Avenue store When Pigs Fly, pointing out many neighbouring communities like her hometown of Beaumont still haven’t followed suit.

“It’s just forcing people to buy reusables that will end up in the landfill anyway,” Tara Chekowski said, pointing out many consumer goods are already packaged in plastic that does not come with a fee.

Calgary has already repealed its plastics bylaw, to cheers from the premier and the UCP.

Danielle Smith has also bashed Edmonton’s rules, but a spokesperson for her government would not say Tuesday whether Alberta will intervene or not.

The survey is open until Nov. 19. City administrators are also working on a report due next year, so council is not expected to make any decisions on the bylaw until both are completed.