A Toronto bylaw starting June 1st, 2009 will require all stores under the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers (CFIG) to bring about a 5 cent charge on plastic bags, meaning every plastic bag the store provides you, you pay 5 cents for. This would take effect in Toronto malls, retail stores, supermarkets and corner stores. The CFIG, representing over 4,000 stores has expressed a reluctance to get involved with the city plan because of the fear that grocery stores may lose customers. Toronto’s plan is to reduce plastic bags by 70 percent by 2012. Ambitious? Yes! Is it actually achievable? Depends on what kind of policy tools are used.
Several stores have already taken the initiatives to implement the 5 cent charge on plastic bags including No Frills and Price Chopper. The rationale of the 5 cent charge is to induce citizens to change their behaviour to cut down on their use of plastic bags. In general, a user charge can persuade citizens to make the investment in buying reusable bags which are sturdier, compact and can carry a higher volume of groceries. The revenue collected from this nominal charge will accumulate in the store’s budget, and it is expected that the money will be used for environmental projects. Sounds pretty nebulous to me.
I think this collaborative initiative between the city and the CFIG is remarkable, however, 5 cents is far too small. For example, let’s say a citizen buys $100 worth of groceries from Loblaw’s, and decided to use 10 plastic bags to carry their groceries from the store to their car. This would translate to 5 cents * 10 plastic bags/$100 worth of groceries. Folks, that means the total revenue from the bag charge is 50 cents. That is nothing. In other words, using 10 plastic bags at five cents each for a $100 grocery bill will only contribute fifty cents to the ostensible environmental projects and initiatives, whatever they entail.
What I suggest: Citizens need an economic incentive. Market-based instruments like rebates are highly advantageous. This would involve the industry or store to provide a rebate or refund of ten cents for every reusable bag brought in by the citizen. Although this would be difficult to regulate, it shows more responsibility from the company and provides the citizen with an economic incentive to be green. Additionally, the CFIG should be more resourceful seeking funding from the city and province so that they can invest money into biodegradable bags which would give citizens the option of using biodegradable bags or using a reusable bag. This way, virtually no waste is produced.
Key message: Similar to many of the conventional arguments put forth regarding carbon taxes or user charges on garbage, a small charge may not induce desired consumer behaviour. Increase the charge to at least 20 cents on plastic bags while concomitantly providing educational workshops on waste diversion, rebates to citizens who bring in their reusable bags, and the city can provide awards for environmental stewardship to recognize the company’s outstanding commitment to environmental protection.
This is an interesting little proposal. However, I don't quite understand why it is such a controversial one either.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, 5 cents is not enough. It's nothing. I don't see why the CFIG is complaining about costs or how they would lose customers.
It's also interesting that the main stores charging for bags these days are the cheaper, discount stores (PC and No Frills) whose customers generally are on the lower end of the income scale. A five cent charge doesn't seem to have much effect on them, so how will it change those families that drop $200/wk at Loblaws?
While the rebate incentive idea you mention is good, I think it would act as a lesser incentive than the plastic bag charge. Generally, plastic bags hold a lot less than the large reusable bags you see everywhere these days. So when someone (like myself) buys $100 worth of groceries, I can usually fill three bags worth. Getting a $0.30 rebate (and saving the $0.40 from eight unused plastic bags for a total of $0.70) might not be enough to seriously coerce people to bringing in bags.
I agree, a much higher increase in the cost of those bags is needed and I think it'd work a lot better than giving a rebate to those with reusable bags. Tossing a massive charge for each plastic bag (at least $1) is needed and people will adapt quickly. We just need to get over that initial hump of whining and complaining from industry. In any case, plastic bags are little fish compared to the issues of increased food costs that grocers are going to have to deal with.
I'm also not sure if charging for these bags is necessary at all. One can hope this is just preparation for an outright ban, like India is planning on (kind of).
i have to say i agree with chris and you tim, 5 cents is nothing. I see that amount of money every day on the ground. however 5 cents does accumulate.
ReplyDeletei wonder what kind of environmental projects these stores will invest in?
- kemstar (sun girl)
Hmm, I originally thought that the 'environmental fund' Tim mentioned would be pretty small, but I ran some numbers.
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind, I have little knowledge about grocery stores, so for the most part, these numbers are guess-timations.
Say a grocery store has 1000 customers per day who each spend $100. They all use 10 plastic bags each. The store makes $100,000 in revenue per day and $500 from plastic bags. Over the course of the year, that one store could make $182,500 to put towards the 'environmental fund'. That could do something, especially for one store.
The trouble will be if all these stores start investing in environmental projects using these revenues and then people stop buying the plastic bags and the source of environmental revenue falls. Bye bye enviro fund...
It only seems appropriate to quote Akon here: "cash moves everything around me, singing dolla dolla bill y'all, dolla dolla bill y'all".... but seriously, manipulating consumer behaviour is a dangerous road to head down... must we babysit every action people make? Waste is such a magically concept in our society... "stuff" disappears. If waste was the responsibility of the consumer I think people would change their perceptions and thus change their behaviour. The average US family uses 1, 460 plastic bags a year (Time Magazine)... considering it takes approx 1 000 years for a plastic bag to break down I wonder what would happen if individuals couldn't snap their fingers to make those bags disappear.
ReplyDeleteJust to turn this into less of a coherent argument, the same Time Magazine article (I believe it ran in 2007) paired the criticism on plastic bags with advertisements for designer reusable bags priced at $1, 720... consumerism at it's finest folks.
A few fun facts...
Plastic bags (as of 2007) were banned in San Francisco, Kenya, South Africa, Rwanda, Zanzibar Islands, Taiwan (along with plastic plates, cups and cutlery) and parts of India. France detailed an 2010 ban initiative and Ireland charges 20cents a bag.
500 billion plastic bags are sold worldwide... 1% gets recycled.
I agree with you on this point Tim. Another incentive that can be used is a points/rewards system, similar to your rebate idea. I know with PC, and my PC bank card, I get points towards groceries for each re-usable bag that I use, but as far as I know that's only at store affiliated with PC, and No Frills (which may/may not be, I'm not 100% sure). In some ways it's worth while, although the points are small amounts, think about how many times you run to the grocery store to grab something...especially families. I think too, like Price Choppers and No Frills, the 'higher end' grocery stores should start putting out boxes that they don't use...as an alternative to plastic bags...so reusing what the store would probably throw out/recycle anyways. It's an interesting bylaw though, and I think every town should implement it!
ReplyDelete