By Cheryl Jahn

Plastics ban in the works?

Jan 9, 2023 | 3:27 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – It landed on Council’s radar since 2018 when then-Councillor Murry Krause put forward the notion of introducing a single-use plastic ban within the City of Prince George. But for a variety of reasons – including COVID, which saw the temporary discontinuance of recycled shopping bags – those plans disappeared.

But just last week, the Province introduced a host of new items that can be added to the blue box recycling program. The list includes *plastic plates, bowls and cups; *plastic cutlery and straws;

*plastic food storage containers;

*plastic hangers (that come with clothing);

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*paper plates, bowls and cups (with thin plastic lining);

*aluminum foil;

*aluminum-foil baking dishes and pie plates; and *metal storage tins (thin gauge).

“We really encourage recycling,” says Aman Singh, Parliamentary Secretary for Environment. “And one of the things that programs that we had is the extended producer responsibility. What it does is that it shifts the focus for collecting and recycling and the cost of that onto the producers, really encouraging them to sort of take part in the circular economy, to produce plastics, produce things that are recyclable, that really are made and used and then thrown away and end up in landfill, but that are made used and then recycled and reused again and stay within the economy.”

It comes on the heels of new federal regulations that incrementally set out deadlines to reduce the manufacturing of single-use plastics, including check-out bags.

“It’s very welcome news,” says Murry Krause. “And I think that I think what we’re looking at now is an effort rather than make it piecemeal. And, you know, some communities have it, some don’t. Some have blue boxes, some don’t and some have recycling, some don’t. And it really is about putting, I think, the responsibility where it lies. I think it really is about stopping the production of single-use plastics and then banning their use in the community.”

But Krause says these new regulations do not remove the onus from our local government to get ahead of the inevitable.

“I think that it’s going to be easy to reintroduce, have the conversation here. And I think one of the things is it’s not going to be arbitrary. It’s going to be up to all communities to be participating. So I think I think we’re heading in the right direction. It’s quite exciting. And again, it’s really not just single-use plastic bags. It’s a whole spectrum of plastics that we just use once and throw away.”

But he says the onus is not on just the manufacturers, the businesses and local government. There is also an onus on the consumer to change their habits.

“I think that I think we’re heading in the right direction. And I but I think that term we are going to we’re all responsible. And it’s not just municipal governments, it’s corporations. It’s the people who use merchants, who use single-use plastic bags. I’m really excited. I mean, you go to another community like even now, Victoria or Vancouver, and they don’t even consider handing us a plastic bag.”

The ban on the import and manufacture on check-out bags came into effect last month and the new provincial blue box regulations take effect immediately.