Mayor says Montreal will ban all plastic bags this year

Mayor Valérie Plante says the City of Montreal will ban all plastic bags in retail stores this year.

The mayor took to Twitter to announce that “we can’t take 1,000 years to make decisions,” ahead of the city’s Wednesday morning executive committee meeting.

The city’s previous administration passed a bylaw in 2016 that bans single-use plastic bags less than 0.05 mm thick. The ban applies specifically to lightweight plastic bags (or those under 0.05 mm thick), as well as oxo-degradable, oxo-fragmentable, oxo-biodegradable, and biodegradable bags.

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Plante did not add a specific date as to when the ban would take effect but expect more details to trickle through following today’s committee meeting.

Crise mondiale du plastique: on ne peut attendre 1000 ans pour prendre des décisions. C’est pourquoi notre admin. agit maintenant afin de modifier notre règlement et d’interdire le + rapidement possible tous les sacs de plastique dans les commerces de détail à Montréal. #polmtl pic.twitter.com/38wE3GoeMx

— Valérie Plante (@Val_Plante) February 5, 2020

Currently in Montreal, individuals who fail to abide by the existing plastic bag ban could be fined between $200 and $1,000, while businesses could be fined between $400 and $4,000.