Chilliwack’s new ban on plastic bags and other items goes into effect on April 1 – no joke.
City council passed a ‘Single Use Item Reduction Strategy’ on Sept. 21, with the goal of cutting down on plastic pollution.
There are different ways to tackle the problem of plastics, and Chilliwack decided to go with a combination of regulatory and educational tools. That means they are banning certain plastic items outright, setting minimum fees on others, and a few will be available to consumers by request only.
“Reducing single-use items in our community will help reduce litter, harm to the environment, and waste sent to the landfill,” Mayor Ken Popove said.
City of Chilliwack received notice from provincial officials in August that it could proceed with its new bylaw as long as it matched provincial requirements, and it has moved forward with the new rules.
The rules ban plastic shopping bags, foam cups and foam take-out containers, and plastic utensils.
The bylaw does not ban paper or plastic cups, for example, just foam ones, “due to lack of provincial legislation,” to that effect, according to the wording of the bylaw.
By summer 2022, customers who ask for a paper bag will pay a minimum fee of 15 cents per bag, and then 25 cents by 2023. For reusable bags it will be $1 per bag at first, and then $2 per bag the next year.
Exemptions include plastic shopping bags to deliver charitable food services and foam containers in hospitals and care homes.
All the details can be found at: chilliwack.com/singleuse
“The current implementation date of April 1, 2022 could be subject to change based on the COVID-19 pandemic and the status of economic recovery,” according to the release.
More than 30 B.C. communities have either researched single-use plastics or implemented new rules around them, like banning plastic bags, since the federal and provincial governments started moving toward reducing plastics in different ways.
RELATED: Chilliwack ready with its new plastics bylaw
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