Months into the debate over banning plastic bags in the Town of Qualicum Beach, one councillor has suggested creating a plastics collection system.
Coun. Bill Luchtmeijer said municipalities and regional districts realize creating a waste collection system helps to keep garbage and recyclables out of the environment.
“To ban bags outright and make it the responsibility of the merchant when should it maybe be the responsibility municipality to have a collection system in place to deal with them in a safe and proper manner,” said Luchtmeijer, asking how the town could encourage the waste collection stream to deal with plastic bags when they’re disposed of.
“I do think we can set an example by creating a system where, in our garbage collection, we find an appropriate way to collect and deal with plastic.”
Luchtmeijer said an outright ban is “heavy-handed.” He also said he wanted to know how the town would be enforcing this prohibition, what the fines would be and what would be the motivation to make people follow through with the ban.
At Monday’s (Oct. 23) council meeting, council instructed staff to define the term single-use plastics in the proposed bylaw and for staff to research options to have a collection system for plastics in the Town of Qualicum Beach for a one-year period.
Council also directed staff to work with local advocacy groups to craft and distribute an educational tool for local businesses and residents, to garner feedback on how they would like to see the town proceed with the plastic bag ban. Staff was also directed to schedule a public information session before the end of the year. In addition, staff will prepare a report for the Jan. 8, 2018 meeting, outlining several options for the single-use plastic bag ban.
Luchtmeijer said while plastics being dumped in the ocean is bad, not all plastics are bad. He said plenty of items come in plastic and it could be difficult to change that.
Coun. Barry Avis said while he was growing up, he didn’t have plastics, “but somehow we got by.”
“I think we’re quite capable of maybe rethinking of some of the good lessons from the past as we move forward on this (the ban),” said Avis.