By Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: Plastic bags – remember the running-shoe commercial

Mar 30, 2019 | 6:55 AM

THERE’S A SLOGAN in a running-shoe commercial that says, “Just do it.”

Kamloops City councillors should remember it when they talk about banning plastic bags. A notice of motion from Coun. Dale Bass will be discussed at next week’s council meeting. When it comes up for debate, there will undoubtedly be hesitation. Everybody will agree something must be done, but it stands a good chance of getting bogged down in the details.

Some will want to go fast, some will want to go slow or kick it into somebody else’s court.

Mayor Ken Christian, for example, prefers a cautious approach — he would rather see it done at the provincial level, and he wants it discussed with retailers, too.

Caution is often a good thing, but disposable plastic has been talked to death. As many are now realizing, and as Bass pointed out, it’s killing the planet. It piles up in our landfills and in our environment.

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Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote an editorial headlined, “Does council have the gumption to ban plastic bags?”

I pointed out that Montreal has banned them, that Victoria was trying (its bylaw was facing a legal challenge), and that California, half the states in India and several African and European countries have banned them. The U.K. has cut plastic-bag usage by 85 per cent.

What prompted the editorial was a news story that said there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050. And China had recently decided to stop accepting our plastics because of contamination.

“So why doesn’t Kamloops get on the plastic-ban bandwagon even if it will take some time to sort out the legalities?” I asked. “Coun. Arjun Singh pushed for it a dozen years ago. Is there anyone on council now with the stones to take up the torch?”

A year later, there is. The issue gains momentum — encouraged by Victoria, a number of smaller communities are taking the plunge. And Vancouver will ban a host of single-use plastics including disposable cups, take-out food containers, straws and utensils as of June 1.

Bass’ notice of motion includes plastic bags, straws and cutlery. Environmentalist David Suzuki wrote that, in Vancouver, 2.6 million disposable cups are thrown out every week, and 57 million drinking straws are discarded every single day in this country.

But fixing the problem doesn’t have to be done all at once. Michele Hadley, a member of a group calling itself Ban the Bag Kamloops, made a compelling presentation to City council this week urging a ban, but she cautioned that “This is not going to happen overnight by any means, for sure.”

She said plastic bags are the best place to get started on doing something about single-use plastics because they’re “iconic.”

Frankly, I think some of her presentation was exaggerated in that she seemed to paint recycling as a failure. More and more products are being recycled than ever before. Just a short time ago, plastic bags were a recycling disaster because sorting machines couldn’t handle them. Now, plastic bags, styrofoam, food containers and a host of other packaging are accepted for recycling.

But she’s correct in saying recycling can’t solve the whole problem. Changing our mindset about the way we use plastics is the answer. We’ve got to stop being a throw-away society.

It’s not easy. One way of discouraging the use of plastic bags is to charge for them at the checkout counter. It hasn’t worked so far, though more than one major local store has tried it and given up. The Victoria bylaw (which was eventually upheld in the B.C. Supreme Court) prohibits retailers from providing plastic bags. They can sell paper checkout bags and reusable checkout bags instead. Businesses who don’t do it can be fined.

Kamloops council can expect a delegation very shortly from the plastics industry. Plastic is big business. Someone will show up to claim all the concern about throw-away plastics is over-stated. They’ll say plastic bags can be used several times for a lot of things.

But things are changing. Attitudes are changing. The mindset is changing. It’s no longer politically dangerous to advocate for a ban. At last September’s annual policy convention, the Union of B.C. Municipalities voted to call on the provincial government to ban plastic shopping bags. (By the way, Arjun Singh is now president of the UBCM.)

City council does not have to study it. The studying has been done. It doesn’t have to wait for somebody else — like the provincial government — to do it. It begins at home. Council does have to consult, of course. But the question shouldn’t be, “Should we do this?” It should be, “We’re doing this. What’s the best way to go about it?”

Start with plastic bags, and when that’s onstream, move on to straws (some local coffee shops and restaurants are already voluntarily getting rid of plastic straws) and then the rest.

Hadley told council that Kamloops could get rid of plastic bags by the end of this year. She’s right, if councillors don’t let themselves get all cautious.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.