Living Green

Green the colour of money changing hands, not the kind of green necessarily that aids the environment, as it happens. 

Toronto's previous mayor, David Miller, had a brilliant idea in 2009; to reduce the common use of disposable plastic shopping bags by giving them monetary value.  If people were forced to pay 5-cents for each bag, they would think twice about their disposability, and re-use them, or utilize more permanent, durable carrying devices rather than the giveaway plastic shopping bags.

The campaign was successful in that it alerted people to the fact of the bags' constant use-and-misuse.  People became more aware, and chose to replace the bags with re-usable types made of hardier fabrics.  And in this way became more responsive to the need to take individual action, even on such a small scale.  But was it small-scale thinking? 

The bags cost 1-cent apiece to produce, and were considered a convenience offered to customers, as a service item. Now all retailers have seen the light; how they could appear to be environmentally responsible by withdrawing the casual hand-outs of free disposable plastic shopping bags, and making them pay for themselves - in spades. 

In Ottawa alone consumers spend between $1-million and $2-million on plastic bags, at 5-cents a pop.  And that's taking into account the restraint imposed upon thoughtful people who accustom themselves to the avoidance of using the disposable bags.

So while a segment of the population has responded to the end of free bags by responsibly taking it seriously and choosing alternative methods of conveying retail purchases, another segment simply pays the additional freight and gets on with life. According to the latest figures, however, the use of plastic bags, once giveaways, has been reduced by 53%, and that's pretty good. 

A large number of bags have been diverted from landfills.  On the other hand, those disposable plastic bags had other uses; people used them to line kitchen garbage pails and set them out fully loaded into large green or black garbage bags come garbage collection day.  Plastic bags, then still ended up in land fills, full of kitchen waste and other household detritus.

What isn't so good is the windfall the 5-cent-a-bag levy has represented in profits for retailers.  In Toronto, retailers have been able to collect over $5.4-million from bag fees annually in profit.  Some of the larger grocery chains use a portion of the profits to donate to charity.  Loblaws committed to $1-million annually over three years to the World Wildlife Fund.

Sobeys set up their Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund with a $1.1-million gift.  Metro has the Green Apple School Program to which it reportedly donated over $2-million.  Good public relations, but no cigar.  That still leaves them with profit that would better go to municipalities to assist them in producing and conducting what is termed greening initiatives.

Advantages and profits realized are tough nuts to crack when recommendations to surrender them are brought to bear.