While Ford plans to ditch plastic bag fee, other countries are banning the scourge outright
The looming debate about ending the 5¢ fee for plastic bags – inspired by recent Rob Ford ruminations – will waste almost as much energy as the fossil-fuel-based bags themselves.
No matter what city council decides, the war on plastic bags has barely begun.
From a global perspective, Toronto’s decision in 2009 to introduce a tiny fee was more a truce than a war, so any end to the program only ends that truce.
The original move under David Miller started a new discussion by requiring a nominal payment for the convenience offered by plastic throwaways, a fee well below that set in Ireland or Los Angeles County (about 25¢) and a lot less strict than the developing international norm of an outright ban. Bangladesh, China, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa are among some 20 countries where a ban is the law.
The European Union will likely follow suit this fall at the behest of the EU’s environmental commissioner, Janez Potocnik, who blames the bags for “suffocating the environment.” The Mediterranean is littered with 250 billion plastic remnants that can kill sea creatures.
In any country bordered by an ocean, the issue is keeping plastic out of the wilds, not just out of landfill. Plastic waste is second only to cigarette butts on ocean beaches, and more than 250 species of sea creatures, including giant sperm whales, die when they accidentally swallow the indigestible plastic garbage.
No matter what city council decides, the war on plastic bags has barely begun.
From a global perspective, Toronto’s decision in 2009 to introduce a tiny fee was more a truce than a war, so any end to the program only ends that truce.
The original move under David Miller started a new discussion by requiring a nominal payment for the convenience offered by plastic throwaways, a fee well below that set in Ireland or Los Angeles County (about 25¢) and a lot less strict than the developing international norm of an outright ban. Bangladesh, China, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa are among some 20 countries where a ban is the law.
The European Union will likely follow suit this fall at the behest of the EU’s environmental commissioner, Janez Potocnik, who blames the bags for “suffocating the environment.” The Mediterranean is littered with 250 billion plastic remnants that can kill sea creatures.
In any country bordered by an ocean, the issue is keeping plastic out of the wilds, not just out of landfill. Plastic waste is second only to cigarette butts on ocean beaches, and more than 250 species of sea creatures, including giant sperm whales, die when they accidentally swallow the indigestible plastic garbage.
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Source: Now Magazine
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