victoria city staff recommend 10-cent bag levy to reduce waste

A staff member who will be reviewed by members this week reported that the fees charged may be reinvested in improving and reducing commercial packaging.
Staff advise cities to hold meetings with businesses and waste
Manage stakeholders to facilitate a voluntary fee structure by the end of next month, in collaboration with local businesses and retailers based on feedback.
Another suggestion is to help establish a working group to improve the management of a single business
Use retail single bag
Beverage containers, food packaging and plastic film products are used.
City staff said the promotion of a voluntary fee structure would be an effective first step in \"motivating local retailers and consumers to take more sustainable packaging decisions.
But Gillian Montgomery of the environmental group Surfrider Foundation has been lobbying for a complete ban on singles --
Using plastic bags, was surprised and disappointed with the recommendation of the staff.
\"A voluntary 10 cent is very weak,\" Montgomery said . \".
\"I don\'t know what will happen to local businesses.
Surfrider members clean up island beaches every month and plastic bags are one of the main items they collect.
\"I just think it\'s time [for a ban].
We have 7,000 signatures from Victoria residents who say we want a ban.
\"I think they should be heard,\" she said . \".
According to city staff, the number of plastic bags used by urban residents is 17 million per year.
Of these bags, an estimated 160,000 to 330,000 are finally landfill.
Montgomery pointed out that other jurisdictions, including Portland, Seattle and San Francisco, have issued seemingly well-functioning bans.
\"We are in the same area, so I think it really makes sense that we take these factors into account and get on the page like other cities . . . . . . All the other people compare Victoria to a city, \"she said.
Jeremy lofdy is with Kuhn.
Ben Isitt has put forward an initiative to ask staff to investigate the ban and he also wants to see something more powerful than voluntary taxation.
\"It\'s not far enough.
There are many strikers.
\"Businesses in our community have started thinking about baggage charges or using reusable baggage only,\" Loveday said . \".
\"Personally, I have heard from many residents that they are ready to ban singles --
Using plastic bags, I think the city should follow the cities, states and countries around the world that have taken this step.
\"City workers report that while the ban is relatively easy to implement and enforce, it will reduce the choice of consumers and will not address the broader sustainability issues associated with packaging, it also does not cause bacteria to spread through reusable bags.
Some North American cities have tried banning singles or fees.
The report says the bag is used.
\"The city of Napa, Calif. , does advertise that bag bans and expenses for paper bags have resulted in a 95 reduction in plastic bags, reporting:\" After one year of adoption, paper bags have decreased and marine waste has decreased by 60 . \".
It notes that Boulder, Colorado, reached a reduction of 68 six months after one month of introduction --
Paper bags and plastic bags in 2013.
In the first year after the introduction of plastic bags in 2002, the use of plastic bags in Ireland fell by 90.
Montgomery said that if the city is to tax, it should follow Ireland\'s footsteps and impose a much higher mandatory fee than 10 cents.
Time colonists.