The Town of St. Paul had considered and dismissed the idea of going plastic bag-free a few years ago, but Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski brought the idea back at the May 24 council meeting, with the view of eliminating plastic waste in landfills.
The Town of St. Paul had considered and dismissed the idea of going plastic bag-free a few years ago, but Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski brought the idea back at the May 24 council meeting, with the view of eliminating plastic waste in landfills.
“It was just a way to get the plastics out of the landfill, as the plastic is non-biodegradable. It's there for a 1,000 years, so to speak and that's something - we want to eliminate that,&” he said in an interview following the meeting.
Council had discussed the idea before, he said, but never had decided to go plastic bag-free.
Kwiatkowski noted council members have talked to other municipalities that have phased out plastic bags, such as Fort McMurray, which has been plastic bag-free for more than five years.
“Like anything else, there's a change, transition period, some confusion, frustration,&” he said, adding many Fort McMurray citizens adjusted over time. The change had the effect of cleaning up some of the smaller plastic bags that ended up loose and flapping around Fort McMurray's landfill, even though it did result in an increase in larger garbage bags in the landfill, he said.
“It's almost impossible to get rid of all the plastic bags,&” he said, adding, “They did say it definitely cleaned up their landfill.&”
Kwiatkowski said he wanted to test the waters with the public, regarding phasing out the use of plastic bags in grocery stores and retail businesses.
“It's just a conversation I'd like to get start again and see what the public has to say, and what the businesses have to say about that,&” he said at council, requesting the question be put up on the town's website and social media.
The St. Paul Journal posed the question on its Facebook site, which received a mixed response; while some wanted to see “wasteful&” plastic bags nixed, others noted these bags were useful for things such as scooping up cat or dog waste and could be re-used, similar to cloth bags. Others called for a better recycling program in town instead of focusing efforts on eliminating plastic bags.
Dolores Delisle, owner of Evergreen Stationers, was one of those who expressed support for better recycling options. She questioned what happened to the products taken for recycling, as items like plastics and mixed paper products that have been taken to recycling centres end up immediately re-directed to landfills.
“I'd like to see the town recycle something. Before you add more costs to the businesses and the people, utilize the recycling centre as a recycling centre and not as a place for things that are just taken to the landfill.&”
As a business, she said that Evergreen's cashiers don't automatically assume people want their products bagged and always ask the question.
“Most of our customers here carry out their products,&” she said, adding that if, however, the town banned plastic bags and the business had to move to paper products, the business would have to charge customers per bag used. “It would certainly cost us all even more, and ultimately, it gets passed down.&”
Graham Getz, general manager for the St. Paul & District Co-op, said for the past number of years, the Co-op has focused on environmental sustainability as one of its platforms.
“We rely on (plastic bags) to conduct our business today. In the future, we had identified, that may be an area of opportunity,&” he said.
Plastic bags used to bag groceries are free, but these can be brought back to the Co-op for recycling, with Getz noting these bags, along with all the pallet wrap brought in to Co-op departments, are recycled and turned into building materials product.
“I think everyone - including the end-user - has a responsibility to the environment,&” he said, adding this is true of corporate citizens such as the Co-op as well. Abolishing plastic bags might be one way to meet the responsibility, but educating people about options such as the Co-op's recycling project is another, he said, adding, “I think there's two ways of thinking about it, and we are going to start with the education portion of it.&”
The discussion on a possible plastic bag ban came up after Coun. Ken Kwiatkowski reported to council there may be a company that is interested in recycling plastic.
Plastic recycling in St. Paul was formerly ended after council questioned the market for it, and whether it was truly effective. Now, an Edmonton-based company has expressed interest and indicated that if the plastic is clean and sorted into one of four grades, the company may be able to pick them up and recycle them, he said. This option to recycle more materials such as plastics, along with increasing moves from citizens to use reusable or cloth bags, is what Kwiatkowski would ideally like to see.
“We are open to suggestions, there may be ideas out there that we haven't thought of,&” said Kwiatkowski, encouraging people to give their feedback to town.
“We're always looking for something.&”
