Businesses say bag fees for takeout and food delivery should be repealed

Business groups say bag fees for food takeout and delivery should be repealed

Example of a McDonald's takeout bag. (Eliz A/Shutterstock)

In 2023, there is clearly general public support for a transition away from single-use plastic materials, and to reduce the overall consumption of some single-use items through reusables.

But are the mandatory paper bag fees for food takeout or delivery, enforced by a growing number of municipal governments across Canada, a step too far?

Customers who take out or pick up food from a restaurant generally need a separate bag to carry their ordered food items. For example, in one scenario, given the risk of spillage and stains, most people wouldn’t put their loosely packaged greasy and smelly fast food items — such as wrapped juicy burgers and an open box of oily fries — inside their everyday backpack containing a laptop or purse. Placing such heated food items in a reusable bag would necessitate the bag to be washed frequently, after each use for optimal sanitary reasons.

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And for food delivery, there is no other choice but to use a paper bag for both logistical reasons and for health safety purposes during transportation. Some restaurants even go as far as to seal paper bags with tape stickers and/or staples to provide the customer with any evidence of tampered food.

Mark Von Schellwitz, the vice president overseeing Western Canada for Restaurants Canada, told Daily Hive the blanket bag fee policies enforced by most municipal governments do not consider the major differences between retail shopping checkout bags and the operational realities of food service bags.

“These operational differences include the need for separate and sometimes multiple bags to safely preserve and transport prepared heated foods. Our members are concerned that complying with reusable bag bylaws risks contravening health regulations as restaurateurs’ first priority is to protect the health and safety of their guests,” he said.

“Restaurants require a number of different paper bag sizes and shapes to protect and preserve various different types of prepared heated food items for takeout and delivery.”

Example of a McDonald’s paper bag used for delivery, which is sealed with tamper tape stickers. (Shutterstock)

Von Schellwitz says the minimum paper bag fee in Vancouver of $0.25 on low-cost food takeout items can amount to up to 20% of the total cost of the order, which can impact sales and result in customer pushback, especially in the current economic climate.

“The environmental focus was to get rid of plastic bags, which has been done, leaving paper bags as the only alternative. Adding a fee to paper and reusable bags hasn’t proven to make any significant changes to consumer behaviour, especially in an environment where the demand for takeout and delivery continues to increase,” continued Von Schellwitz.

Greg Wilson, the director of government relations of BC for the Retail Council of Canada, also says his organization would prefer to not have a paper bag fee for takeout and food delivery, given that these are the circumstances where a bag is necessary.

“Everyone understands there needs to be reduction of waste, but the difficulty here is some of these bags are unavoidable, like delivery and takeout food bags,” Wilson told Daily Hive.

“We were not opposed to the plastic bag ban because it stops more plastics from going into the landfill and environment… I don’t think we look at paper bags the same way, they are the alternatives for single-use plastic.”

Wilson adds that hundreds of municipal governments across the country have applied blanket single-use bag fees without considering the operational needs of takeout and food delivery.

In general, he says, the current “hodge-podge” practice of each municipal government having their own different policies on plastics and single-use items is not the sensible way of regulating these materials, and that cities should defer to upcoming federal policies.

“When you have a different fee in different municipalities, it’s hard for consumers to understand, and the messaging is not consistent either,” said Wilson.

Takeout paper bags for Tim Hortons and Starbucks. (Shutterstock)

Von Schellwitz says his organization recommends adopting Prince Edward Island’s bag regulations, which includes a number of regulatory exemptions for the food service industry that factor in the unique operational realities of restaurants, including exemptions for delivery orders, drive-thru orders, accepting reusable bags, the need to ask a customer if they want a bag, and a paper bag size exemption of 600 sq cm, which is double that of various bag size exemptions in municipalities in BC.

The City of Vancouver provides a paper bag fee exemption for small paper bags that measure less than 15 cm in length and 20 cm in width when flat — a volume of 300 sq cm. But Von Schellwitz points out that prepared heated food items do not always fit within such small paper bags, and frontline staff are often confused about which bags they need to charge a fee for.

Vancouver’s municipal government provides fee exemptions for bags that are not used as shopping bags to hold a range of products for health safety, operational, and/or convenience reasons. This includes no fees or a ban of any bagged material for loose bulk items such as fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, and candy, as well as bakery goods that are not pre-packaged before the point of sale, frozen foods, and loose small hardware such as nails and bolts. There are also fee exemptions for non-shopping bags for live fish, flowers or potted plants, newspaper delivery, the protection of clothes after professional laundering or dry cleaning, sandwich bags, pet waste bags, and garbage and compost bin liners.

Other exemptions include plastic materials for large shopping bags for linens, beddings, or other similar large items that cannot easily fit in a paper or reusable shopping bag.

Vancouver City Councillor Rebecca Bligh told Daily Hive in an email that while she agrees there are some scenarios where the bag fee is as difficult to avoid as the existing single-use cup fee, there are currently no plans to explore changing the City’s bag fee regime.

Bligh recently championed the successful motion to repeal Vancouver’s mandatory $0.25 single-use cup fee, which is highly unpopular amongst residents, and deemed problematic by many businesses. Von Schellwitz and Wilson also expressed their support for repealing the single-use cup fee, which will be terminated no later than June 1.

“There had been significant public demand to repeal the disposable cup fee, but we have not had the same demand from residents regarding the bag fee,” she said.

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