JOHNSON – The $2 reusable shopping bag is a mind-numbingly dense idea

A CULTURAL CHANGE has been in the works for a few years now, and has ramped up recently.  We have all absorbed and altered our routines to acclimatize to this new reality.

Today we all have in the back seat or trunk of the car, a collection of reusable grocery bags, and after a bunch of failures … eventually learned to remember to pick up a few on our way into the grocery store of our choice.

We all see the logic as well as the inevitability of having to do this … it’s not a stretch to figure out that more decades of moving billions of single use plastic shopping bags, knives, forks and straws … really isn’t a viable option.

As green thinking has become a very politically active reality, governments at all levels have run amok and planned out rules and regulations to remove single use plastics from our world.

This is now the world we live in.

I now drive around with a stainless steel straw in the glovebox … can’t stand the mouthfeel of the paper ones.

Moving on.

Canada’s federal government is on track towards a commitment to “zero plastic waste” countrywide by 2030. The regulations include a prohibition for the manufacture, import and sale of single-use plastic checkout bags, cutlery and foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, as well as ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws.

The federal government barred single-use plastic checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, stir sticks, and straws on Dec. 20, 2023. On June 20, 2023, ring carriers, or beverage rings like on a six pack of pop or beer, were also banned federally.

Provinces are required to parallel these regulations and timelines, and municipalities also play a role and are welcome to initiate specific bans before the federal deadlines.

Municipalities across B.C. have implemented their own regulations over the years, but plastic shopping bags were not banned provincewide until Dec. 20, 2023, the same date as the federal ban. That’s also when rules banning single-use plastic utensils in food service took effect.

Come July 1, 2028, PVC film wrap, used to seal and secure food items in containers, will be banned in B.C.  By July 1, 2030, polystyrene foam trays will also be banned in the province.  These two items will have a deep impact of packaging at grocery stores … a few of which have already switched to a new heavier and recyclable cryovac packaging process.

Generally, most grocers, retailers, and Canadian manufacturers have managed to find new ways of packaging products to conform to all these regulations.  We all have had the moment where we have seen a new compliant packaging arrangement for a product we regularly use, and have seen the bamboo knives and forks and paper straws with our takeout.

In most cases, this is all doable, workable and manageable … most cases.

We have all, as well, collected a bunch of those woven paper product multi use grocery bags that have become ubiquitous; most stores carry their own branded one for us to buy, and many of us gravitated towards the Dollarama green inexpensive versions.  These things last for a few dozen store trips before they rip and they are recyclable.

A win–win.

Not so fast … as the B.C. government this week said … “hold our beer.”

A new B.C.-wide regulation dated July 15 now requires retailers to charge fees for paper and reusable bags.  B.C.’s single-use plastics ban means business operators can only sell shopping bags made of recycled paper or that are reusable. The province says shoppers must also pay at least 25 cents per paper bag, while a reusable one will cost a minimum of $2 … each.

What is surprising people is the definition of ‘reusable’.

Apparently, B.C.’s definition of ‘reusable’ is; “Reusable shopping bags are to be designed to be reused and machine washed at least 100 times.” That is a quote.

Wait … what?  That’s a pretty sturdy bag.  One hundred times.

So much for our back seats full of woven green paper product shopping bags. There is no way they could stand up to being chucked in the wash that many times.

Then I realized that what the government meant by reusable … is not recyclable.  This new requirement means manufacturers are going to be using sturdy vinyl and heavier constructions and materials that will be able to hold up to this standard … which means our trip into the store from the trunk, just tripled in weight and bulk … to carry bags that are not recyclable but made with all kinds of allowable plastic products that today are not considered ‘single use’ … but that’s OK … the rush is all about that ‘single use’ part.

There is no attempt to make these future tough bags recyclable.  Which means that all these new bags … will eventually be landfill. Heavy grade plastics, possibly fabrics and other non-recyclable materials … landfill.

Remember that these sturdy, 100-times washable grocery bags will cost $2 each by mandate of the provincial government.  This on its own opens up a number of potentially unforeseen moments.

For example, a woman reported that when her groceries were delivered, she had been charged $28 for 14 bags … and by these rules, she will pay this each and every time groceries are delivered.  The financial costs here will most often be borne by those unable to go to the store, let’s say for example, the disabled.  They now have a new tax to get their food because they can’t walk into the store with the bags they already bought.

Something is going wrong here.

To be clear, only shopping bags are subject to any of this. Plastic bags provided by grocery stores for holding produce or bulk items are not subject to a fee ands will be readily available, nor are small paper bags measuring less than 15 centimetres by 20 centimetres when lying flat … like your mushroom bags in the produce section.

Thankfully I can still buy more than one tomato.

One is left to wonder just what was the mindset behind mandating a $2 minimum charge for a reusable but landfillable shopping bag with this standard?  It seems like the B.C. government arbitrarily decided that the least it could cost for a bag with such an extreme hardiness standard was $2 … so “let’s just make everyone pay $2.”

This has got to be some of the most bizarre and mind-numbingly dense idea seen yet in this steamroll to reusability.  If you really want to have a standard of 100 washes, that’s pretty dumb but OK … let the free market decide the cost.  Allow competition to drive the price.  We don’t need government to decide what the market costs are for any product … but thanks.

My Hot Take? I’m off to fill up on those woven paper bags from Dollarama
… before they’re gone for what seems to be … for good.

Learn more about B.C.’s regulations here.

David Johnson is a Kamloops resident, community volunteer and self described maven of all things Canadian.