Edmontonians have mixed feelings over the city's single-use items bylaw
Edmontonians have a lot of feelings about the city’s single-use items bylaw after Calgary City Council narrowly voted in favour of a motion that kicked off the process to possibly repeal its own single-use items bylaw — which had only existed for two weeks.
Edmonton’s Single-use Item Reduction Bylaw, which took effect on July 1, 2023, is similar to the one in the process of being repealed in Calgary. Since last summer, single-use plastic shopping bags can no longer be distributed, and businesses must charge at least 15 cents for a paper bag and $1 for a reusable shopping bag.
In addition to the bag changes, businesses or event organizers cannot provide any polystyrene foam service wear, and utensils, straws, condiment packs, and napkins are only available by either request or self-serve.
With Edmonton’s bylaw remaining — even moving ahead with an increase on bag fees this summer — it prompted one Calgarian to reach out to their northern neighbour on Reddit and ask Edmontonians how they felt about the single-use item bylaw.
How do you feel about Edmonton’s shopping bag fees now that Calgary city council voted to repeal theirs?
byu/rocket-boot inEdmonton
“Hey neighbours, friendly Calgarian here looking to make sense of wtf just happened over the past two weeks with this shopping bag fiasco,” the user wrote.
“Was there a really negative response from consumers when the single-use bylaw was passed in Edmonton? Now that it’s been in effect for some time, is anyone still upset about it? Would you like to see your city council repeal the bylaw, or are you over it?”
The post received more than 400 replies, and the responses ranged from people still upset to some who really couldn’t care less about the bylaw. However, most of the comments were at least a little irritated.
“The grocery one I don’t care about at this point. Keeps me using the stockpile of “reusable” bags. The takeout bag charge makes 0 sense,” the top comment reads.
“Also, I hate that the company is just pocketing the cash. It’s not a tax that is used towards something that benefits me, it’s just something that was free and now the companies get to charge and pocket the $,” they continued.
Another wrote, “As a customer I am asked to pay for a biodegradable paper bag for my fries but my dry cleaning comes in a new plastic bag every time, no questions asked. Instead of plowing [through] and upping the price of bags, they need to be ironing out inconsistencies.”
“I hate it. They are putting the cost on the consumer instead of on the producer or the middle man. The stores/restaurants are making extra money from the consumer and we’ve had this law for a year now. I see very little change in behaviour. You wanna reduce single use items? Change the packaging requirements on toys, foodstuffs, etc. it’s just another tax on the overburdened population,” one suggested.
“[It’s] not that they charge for bags. I don’t have an issue with that. You want to reduce waste you make people pay for it. It’s pretty simple. I have a huge issue with that they’re required to charge for bags and get to keep all the money for,” another user wrote, adding that they believe the money should go back to the city or to a food bank.
Another commenter said, “If it was like a bottle deposit, I’d be fine with it. I can’t see what the money is actually doing or actually for. It’s just taxes for eating out…”
“I literally don’t care. I’ve carried reusable bags most of my life; nothing could affect me less than a tiny charge on something I use a couple times a year,” wrote one user.
Premier Danielle Smith weighed in on the issue earlier this week, saying, “There’s a little bit of ideology getting ahead of common sense” when asked about YEG and YYC’s bylaws banning single-use items.
What do you think of Edmonton’s single-use bylaw now that Calgary is repealing theirs? Let us know in the comments.