Rob Ford wants to scrap 5-cent plastic bag fee

Locutus

Adorable Deplorable
Jun 18, 2007
32,230
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By Council, not his constituents. Fords constituents actually want it.

For the retailers...

Toronto's five-cent bag tax up for committee debate | CTV Toronto

Ya, great program...

Why not? That's a healthy part of the reason you dismiss Fords transit plan. Funny how your fiscal senses ebb and flow with who's programs are in question, lol.


Yeo. If the retailers were pre-taxed first, there would/should be outrage.

That's why I want to see a proper exposé on Stewardship Ontario.
 

Just the Facts

House Member
Oct 15, 2004
4,162
43
48
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So what are people using to collect their garbage in nowadays? I use shopping bags to line waste baskets in the house, especially in the kitchen. Surely people aren't throwing their garbage into reusable shopping bags.

Also, I heard recently that it's recommended, in order to avoid cross contamination, that you wrap meat and vegetable products before putting them into your reusable bags in....you guessed it....plastic bags!

Seriously, plastic is being promoted everywhere....packaging is as bad as ever if not worse, and now we're even using plastic for fencing and decking. But shopping bags are the problem. OK.
 

IdRatherBeSkiing

Satelitte Radio Addict
May 28, 2007
15,371
2,961
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Toronto, ON
So what are people using to collect their garbage in nowadays? I use shopping bags to line waste baskets in the house, especially in the kitchen. Surely people aren't throwing their garbage into reusable shopping bags.

Also, I heard recently that it's recommended, in order to avoid cross contamination, that you wrap meat and vegetable products before putting them into your reusable bags in....you guessed it....plastic bags!

Seriously, plastic is being promoted everywhere....packaging is as bad as ever if not worse, and now we're even using plastic for fencing and decking. But shopping bags are the problem. OK.

We use a Glad bag of some sort (or generic rippoff depending what is on special). With recycling taking more our actual trash usage has gone down.

For the bathroom bags we still use plastic bags. Every now and then we will do a plastic run to get bags for trash and our son's lunches.
 

Locutus

Adorable Deplorable
Jun 18, 2007
32,230
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So what are people using to collect their garbage in nowadays? I use shopping bags to line waste baskets in the house, especially in the kitchen. Surely people aren't throwing their garbage into reusable shopping bags.

Also, I heard recently that it's recommended, in order to avoid cross contamination, that you wrap meat and vegetable products before putting them into your reusable bags in....you guessed it....plastic bags!

Seriously, plastic is being promoted everywhere....packaging is as bad as ever if not worse, and now we're even using plastic for fencing and decking. But shopping bags are the problem. OK.


You'll throw your garbage in whatever officially endorsed container the government says you will!

You got that young man?

:lol:
 

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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Seriously, plastic is being promoted everywhere....packaging is as bad as ever if not worse, and now we're even using plastic for fencing and decking. But shopping bags are the problem. OK.

Shopping bags are a problem in landfills, which is the point... One plastic bag to wrap meat versus 10 to bring your groceries home. That's a big difference. Sure, some people get one more use out of them, but not all. What logic is there in continuing to use plastic bags when a suitable alternative exists, when as you correctly note plastic is on the rise across the board?
 

Just the Facts

House Member
Oct 15, 2004
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I just told you the logic, without my shopping bags, I gotta buy kitchen catchers. Betcha shopping bags decompose faster than kitchen catchers.
 

Liberalman

Senate Member
Mar 18, 2007
5,623
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Toronto
Shopping bags are a problem in landfills, which is the point... One plastic bag to wrap meat versus 10 to bring your groceries home. That's a big difference. Sure, some people get one more use out of them, but not all. What logic is there in continuing to use plastic bags when a suitable alternative exists, when as you correctly note plastic is on the rise across the board?

That is not the case with biodegradable plastic bags
 

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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I just told you the logic, without my shopping bags, I gotta buy kitchen catchers.

Or you could just empty a bin into your trash bin...no bags needed. Problem solved penny-wise! The shopping bag isn't the only option for the cheapo's.

Betcha shopping bags decompose faster than kitchen catchers.

Based on what? There are products out there that biodegrade in weeks as opposed to years, if that's what the consumer wants.
 

CDNBear

Custom Troll
Sep 24, 2006
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Ontario
Or you could just empty a bin into your trash bin...no bags needed. Problem solved penny-wise! The shopping bag isn't the only option for the cheapo's.
Not here dude. The green bin dudes won't empty it in the truck, if it isn't bagged in the bin.
 

Tonington

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Oct 27, 2006
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Not here dude. The green bin dudes won't empty it in the truck, if it isn't bagged in the bin.

Well that's dumb. Green bin is compost here, and they don't even want to see the biodegradable bags in the compost bin. The black bin is for our trash, and we aren't allowed to use bags that are opaque, like a Sobey's bag or Superstore bag. In fact they advise us that we don't need to use a bag at all for waste or compost. PEI doesn't exactly have lots of excess land to use for storing waste though.
 

Tonington

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 27, 2006
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My green bin has made an excellent wheeled water bucket, for when I wash the lawn tractor though.

Would make a decent rain barrel too, though in some parts of the world that isn't even allowed!
 

CDNBear

Custom Troll
Sep 24, 2006
43,839
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Ontario
Would make a decent rain barrel too, though in some parts of the world that isn't even allowed!
There were rain barrels on all four corners of the house when we bought it.

SCB used the water to water her garden. When we connected to water and sewers, and had no water for a day, we used it to bathe, after putting a 1/4 cup of bleach in it.

That all changed when our lovely new Russian citiot neighbours moved in.

We weren't even allowed to keep them if we capped them.

Now I pump water from the well, for SCB's garden. Even that the town would like me to decommission.

Like TP said, it's just a different way that some scientists decided to highlight waste.
While adding to the climate frenzy.
 

DurkaDurka

Internet Lawyer
Mar 15, 2006
10,385
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Toronto
Even if he somehow manages to get rid of the fee, it's not like retailers are going to rescind the practice. We'll still be paying for them. I liked the idea the one Councillor had about the city collecting a portion of the fee to go towards replanting all the trees that were killed by that fungus or whatever the hell it was.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
27,780
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bliss
The point of the fee was to change behavior....once the behavior is changed, scrap the fee. We don't even have such fees here in big bad oil country, and my family have been using reusable bags for as long as I can remember. Everyone I know uses them. Oh and hey, I own a washing machine, how novel to wash cloth things that come into contact with food. We even have these cloth things we use in our kitchen instead of paper towel, we call them dish cloths. They all get washed with bleach...pretty simple.
 

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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The point of the fee was to change behavior....once the behavior is changed, scrap the fee.

I would agree to that as a temporary experiment, but we do run the risk of reverting to former practice.
 

Walter

Hall of Fame Member
Jan 28, 2007
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Shopping bags are a problem in landfills, which is the point... One plastic bag to wrap meat versus 10 to bring your groceries home. That's a big difference. Sure, some people get one more use out of them, but not all. What logic is there in continuing to use plastic bags when a suitable alternative exists, when as you correctly note plastic is on the rise across the board?
There is no suitable alternative to picking up my dogs turds. When I'm shopping now I pull off a few extra veggie bags and put them in my pocket ready for my dog's next dump, and yes for all you wags, my dog dumps in my pocket.