By Ian Holmes

Nanaimo Council wants to ban plastic bag use by retailers

Dec 12, 2017 | 11:15 AM

NANAIMO — Plastic bags have suddenly appeared on Nanaimo City Council’s hit-list.

Council unanimously expressed their wish to ban plastic bags at the retail level during a special council meeting Monday night. The motion called on staff to report back as soon as possible with options and the extent of Council’s authority to pass and enforce such a ban.

The decision followed a delegation from three concerned citizens outlining environmental concerns.

Coun. Bill Bestwick said he 100 per cent supports banning the use of plastic bags in Nanaimo.

“I don’t know how many more short-story movies and things that we need to go observe with what’s happening to our environment and our wildlife and our fish habitat and everything else in order for us to wake up.”

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An original motion was broad, then made more specific to focus on retailers and find out what ability the City has to enforce a ban.

Coun. Gord Fuller feels council is making a step in the right direction.

“(Let’s) have staff come back with what can we do that will actually have an impact on this community because I don’t believe we can ban the use of every plastic bag out there,” Fuller said.

The delegation told Council six Canadian cities have banned plastic bags. The Town of Qualicum Beach has vowed to outlaw the sale of plastic bags from retailers, while neighbouring Parksville is considering the idea.

Some Nanaimo grocery stores charge four to five cents per plastic bags, while they are free at others.

Nanaimo’s Costco doesn’t supply any bags, while Thrifty Foods has just paper.

In September, the Regional District of Nanaimo’s manager of solid waste Larry Gardner told NanaimoNewsNOW there had been “quite a bit of discussion” at the Regional Solid Waste Advisory Committee level about banning plastic bags.

“There are definitely challenges in going down that path, but municipal government’s have a little bit more latitude than regional government’s in that respect,” Gardner said.

He believed less than 12 per cent of total items that enter the regional landfill in Cedar are plastic materials and suggested making recycling of the bags more convenient might be the best approach.

ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes.