Update: City council gave final approval to having city staff investigate the elimination of single-use plastics at city facilities and municipally sanctioned events at its Jan. 27, 2020 meeting.
The City of Barrie could soon join the growing list of municipalities that are opting to ban single-use plastics.
At last night's general committee meeting, councillors unanimously endorsed having city staff investigate a prohibition on single-use plastics and report back to committee at a later date. The ban could include city facilities and municipally permitted events, as well as looking at possible ways for Barrie businesses to phase out single-use plastics, too.
"We really want to be leaders in our community," said Coun. Jim Harris, who put the item on the floor for discussion alongside Coun. Robert Thomson.
Coun. Keenan Aylwin had the item amended to include city-permitted events, such as festivals.
"If we're going to be looking at banning single-use plastics at city-owned facilities, we also have to look at all of the events we sanction in the city as well, because some of them, for sure, have a pretty big waste footprint," said Aylwin, who also noted that Orillia's successful Mariposa Festival has been waste-free for several years.
Coun. Harris said that's something he can get behind because so many events are held along the city's lakeshore.
"If we can't do things down there to improve our environmental efforts, then where would we do it? What would motivate us more than Kempenfelt Bay?" Harris said.
Coun. Mike McCann said he was concerned about how a more widespread ban could affect local businesses.
"The environment is a hot topic right now and everyone wants to do everything under the sun, but sometimes there's no real action," said McCann, who added he doesn't want council to do anything to hurt small businesses. "They really can't put that cost to the end user, so that would affect their business."
Thomson said he was concerned about council providing direction to city staff that would make their investigation too large and widespread.
"I think we should just look at being great leaders in-house and then we'll hopefully attract people to want to come on board with it," he said.
Coun. Clare Riepma said going plastic-free is a sign of the times.
"When our children are our age, this won't be a point of discussion at all," said Riepma, adding there also needs to be public education on the issue as well as a provincial or federal ban put in place. "But I suspect if we don't start raising the flag, no one is ever going to salute."
Mayor Jeff Lehman noted the federal government is looking at the issue, with hopes of having a ban in place by next year, meaning legislation from higher levels of government "may very well overtake us."
Deputy Mayor Barry Ward also asked city staff to include in their report a definition of what the ban would include.
Single-use plastics can typically include everything from grocery bags and food packaging to bottles, containers, straws, cups and cutlery.
According to a 2018 report from the United Nations (UN), plastic is a "miracle material" due to its low cost and the level of convenience it provides, but it's also creating "one of our planet’s greatest environmental challenges."
"Our oceans have been used as a dumping ground, choking marine life and transforming some marine areas into a plastic soup," Erik Solheim, head of UN Environment, says in the report. "In cities around the world, plastic waste clogs drains, causing floods and breeding disease. Consumed by livestock, it also finds its way into the food chain."
It's estimated that between one and five trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year, according to the UN, which also expects global plastic production to increase over the next 10 to 15 years.
The UN says governments around the world are "increasingly awake" to the scale of the issue. More than 60 countries have introduced bans and levies to curb single-use plastic waste. However, the UN report notes it's too early to tell what effect bans and levies on single-use plastics will have.
But Solheim points to places like Rwanda as "a pioneer in banning single-use plastic bags, is now one of the cleanest nations on Earth."
Of the nations that have reported little to no impact, some of the main issues are lack of enforcement and affordable alternatives. Bans have even led to a black market for plastic bags in some places.
The UN has advised countries to target the most problematic single-use plastics, assess the impacts, promote alternatives, enforce, monitor and adjust.
