New fee in the bag? Toronto committee approves minimum price for reusable bags

A key city committee is recommending Toronto move ahead with a minimum fee for reusable bags to drive shoppers towards more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

Toronto's infrastructure committee voted Wednesday to adopt a staff plan to update the city's solid waste reduction strategy. That plan will force all retailers to accept reusable bags starting March 1, 2024.

From there, the minimum prices for the bags themselves will start increasing. On May 1, 2024, shoppers will have to pay $1 for each reusable bag, per the city's plan. That price would then jump to $2 on May 1, 2025. 

Staff say the adoption of a "graduated" minimum bag fee is recommended to prevent the "unrestricted distribution" of reusable bags which they worry could become replacements for single-use bags.

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Coun. Jennifer McKelvie (Scarborough-Rouge Park) said the policy lines up with work most retailers and shoppers are already doing to shift from single-use plastics to reusable bags.

"I think there is an appetite from the public to do this," she said during the committee meeting. "And it's already started on its own, as more of a grassroots roots movement."

If the policy passes at council, the city would also require all retailers accept reusable cups, provided they're in "good repair" and "visibly clean."

The plan would also put the onus on retailers to have shoppers choose whether they want paper bags or single-use takeaway cups and single-use utensils. 

"The Ask-First/By-Request requirement for accessory food items supports single-use and takeaway item reduction by introducing the opportunity for behavioural change in prompting customers to consider and decide whether they require the items before receiving them," a staff report notes.

The city said businesses would pocket the minimum amount they charge for reusable shopping bags.

A move away from single-use products in all stores is long overdue because the items become litter across the city, said Coun. Dianne Saxe (University-Rosedale). If the objects are eliminated at the source, she said they're much less likely to end up creating a mess in communities.

"We have the power, we have the problem of wasting an enormous amount of public money and private time picking up what other people foolishly, carelessly drop," Saxe said at the meeting.

"We could do something about it. And we've just chosen not to all of these years."