ONE of the key players in Toronto’s transformation to a recycling town has welcomed moves by the big supermarkets to phase out single-use plastic bags.
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Steve Dewar, of the Toronto Area Sustainability Neighbourhood Group (TASNG), said the decision by Coles and Woolworths to phase-out their single-use plastic bags over 12 months would only add momentum to the growing shift away from single-use plastics in Toronto.
“We’ve surveyed all the shops in Toronto and encouraged them to transition out of single-use plastic bags, and nearly all have,” Mr Dewar said.
“We have twice surveyed all coffee shops in Toronto so that now most don't use the plastic takeaway cups. All will fill the bring-your-own cups that customers take in, and some coffee shops even offer a discount for doing that.”
Having Coles and Woolworths get on board was a major win, he said.
“We have been on this campaign for about six years.This is a breakthrough as the big two supermarkets have been the toughest to get to change,” he said.
Aldi offers a reusable plastic bag that customers can buy.
Mr Dewar said similar bags were likely to appear at Coles and Woolworths.
“Some people are disappointed that a plastic bag to buy will be the alternative to the grey bags, but I think as long as people reuse the better plastic bag or, better still, bring their own bags – whether green or cloth – it will be much better,” he said.
“TASNG promotes reusable shopping bags – such as green, cloth, hemp, hessian and string. And we also encourage people to use a reusable non-plastic mesh bag for fruit and vegetables, instead of small plastic bags.”
TASNG also helped the Toronto Tidy Towns group to set up twin recycling bins in Toronto, a first for the Hunter.
There was more work to do, Mr Dewar said.
“We will campaign to have fast food restaurants offer recycling, and for less waste from service stations, less plastic packaging, less cigarette rubbish, and we are encouraging fishing shops and clubs to bin fishing rubbish properly rather than polluting our lake and beaches.”