On Wednesday, Calgary’s city council repealed their single-use plastic bylaw, meaning shoppers will no longer be charged for paper and reusable bags.
However, Edmonton’s mayor Amarjeet Sohi is doubling down on Edmonton’s single-use bylaw saying feedback shows Edmontonians are ok with it.
“We’re all used to it now so to go back doesn’t make sense at all,” said one Edmontonian CityNews spoke to.
The City ran a survey in November that showed half of Edmontonians supported the bylaw while the other half didn’t. But after speaking to Edmontonians on Thursday, it became clear that those numbers may have shifted more in favour of the bylaw.
“I think it’s ok the way it is right now because of saving the environment and everything,” said an Edmontonian.
Another added, “Plastic straws are a bane to society.”
Businesses downtown say they have also seen less pushback now that people have adjusted. Many customers are bringing in their own items like mugs, bags, and straws when shopping.
“We always encourage people to bring their own mugs and we do discounts for to-say mugs and their own mugs. So we don’t charge for the paper, we just charge people less if they don’t use it,” explained Markiz Shcherban, the manager of Blenz.
So the question remains, should Edmonton scrap its single-use bylaw? One man’s answer is quite simple. “No!”