FVRD and Abbotsford Start the Phase-out of Plastic Bags
The Fraser Valley Regional District, with the support of Abbotsford city council, is planning to wean residents off plastic shopping bags.
Metro Vancouver recently asked the city to write a letter support of a "ban" against single-use plastic bags.
While many of the councillors voiced their approval for the need to get rid of the bags, they prefer it to be a phasing-out process.
"We're calling it a ban, but that's not actually what we're doing right away," said Abbotsford Coun. Patricia Ross, who is also the FVRD chairwoman.
"It's not realistic to ban plastic bags immediately. We recognize that."
After conducting studies on the issue, Ross said the FVRD found most people take the plastic shopping bags and use them as liners for their garbage.
While it is not ideal, those plastic bags are better for the environment than many of the garbage bags made specifically to be liners.
Ross said for now banning the bags outright may actually be counter-productive.
"You are kind of creating one problem by trying to deal with another one," said Ross.
"We're trying to get people to supplement their use of the plastic bags with the cloth bags so they are only taking enough plastic bags to be able to use as garbage liners."
She added, hopefully one day there would be no need for the plastic bags.
Published: Tuesday, April 14, 2009