The City of Surrey is moving ahead with plans to banish disposable plastic shopping bags and foam food containers.
On Friday, the B.C. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy announced it had approved a bylaw banning single-use plastic bags in four cities, including Surrey. In turn, the City of Surrey issued a news release announcing it “will start finalizing its plan to ban plastic checkout bags, foam cups and takeout containers.”
“As we work our way through the pandemic, City Council has not lost sight of the importance of our environment,” Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum said in a news release.
“That is why we are placing such a top priority on initiatives such as a plastic bag and foam food container ban for our City.”
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The province also approved bylaws banning single-use plastics in Nanaimo, Rossland and Esquimalt.
Surrey’s news release notes that use of disposable and non-compostable items results in increased energy and resource consumption, litter and illegal dumping; costs to collect from public spaces and landfill waste.
“We all want to do our part to help our environment and reducing the number of plastic bags and foam containers that end up in landfills is something that we can all easily do,” said Surrey Coun. Allison Patton, who is chair of the city’s agriculture, environment and investment committee.
“As we move toward a city-wide ban of these items, I want to thank the Surrey businesses which have already taken the initiative to do away with single-use plastic shopping bags and foam takeout containers.”
No details were provided about when a city-wide ban would be instituted.
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