The Toronto Sun is reporting that Toronto City Council voted in the beginning of June to Toronto bans plastic bags by the start of 2013. The ban on plastic bags is effective Jan. 1 and in a surprise move they decided to scrap the city’s five-cent bag fee starting July 1. That means that even if you want to pay a fee you would not be able to get a plastic bag, you will have to have a reusable bag.
City council voted 27-17 to prohibit all Toronto retail stores from providing customers with single-use plastic bags starting next year. Councillors also voted 23-21 to trash the three-year old nickel fee for plastic bags effective next month.
“The Council was debating whether to kill the 5-cent-per-bag fee when one of them said “Let’s just get rid of the damn bags.” It passed 24-20.”
This is very bold but they are hardly alone. Many cites and entire countries have banned the plastic shopping bags that had become common sites stuck in trees and along roads.
From Wikipedia : Plastic bags are either restricted or completely banned in over a quarter of the world’s countries. Belgium, Italy, Ireland and Hong Kong have legislation discouraging the use and encouraging the recycling of plastic bags by imposing a fixed or minimum levy for the supply of plastic bags or obliging retailers to recycle.
I believe Toronto is the first place to completely ban them even with a fee. We’ll have to see how it goes.