Parting with plastic coming easy to some Canadians.
Posted Jan 2, 2011 4:42 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
When it comes to parting with plastic bags, Canadians are doing their part in helping to reduce what goes to the landfill.
With consumers carrying home more than 55 million bags each week, some chains have reported 50 per cent reductions in what they hand out.
Allen Langdon of the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors attributes much of that to growing consumer awareness.
“If you go into any major grocery store today, you’ll see not only reasonable bags prominently displayed but a variety of bags, different sizes, shapes and purposes,” says Langdon. “So I think there’s a clear consumer trend and I think our members are addressing that.”
Four provinces have signed on with the council to help reduce plastic by 50 per cent in the five years; British Columbia, Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta.
Langdon tells 660News, he’s confident that they’re well on track to meeting that goal since they began in 2008.
“I think at the end of the day, as we make these efforts, there will be a larger awareness that yes plastic bags are a component of landfill but in a larger perspective they’re a very small piece to the puzzle,” says Langdon.
According to the Council, bags make up only 1 per cent of what’s headed to the landfill and even those bags have been re-used by 40 to 50 per cent of households with things like garbage and pet waste.
