PLASTIC BAN: Montreal to ban plastic bags by year’s end

Montreal has become the latest city to ban plastic bags.

The city has had a partial ban on plastic bags since January of 2018 when thin plastic shopping bags were axed. The new ban will include large and regular-sized shopping bags—less than 50 microns, roughly the same thickness of a kitchen garbage bag.

“2020 is the last year for plastic bags in Montreal,” said mayor Valorie Plante, announcing that the city would change the previously in-effect law to now ensure all plastic bags are not available to shoppers.

Plante pointed to pressure from the public, who have been pressing her office.

“We have to reduce at the source,” said Plante.

Executive committee member for ecological transition Laurence Lavigne Lalonde said that the plastic bags currently being used pose a public health threat.

“I think the impact is significant and we have to ask ourselves questions about the actions we are taking,” she said.

“Reducing at the source is the solution, period,” she said.

“We have every good reason to move forward.”

Montreal joins a long list of other cities and even countries that have implemented similar laws. According to a list compiled by TorontoEnvironment.org:

“In Canada, the town of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba banned plastic bags in 2007. Other North American cities include San Francisco (also 2007), Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland and Mexico City. The states of Hawaii and North Carolina have banned plastic bags, and states in Australia and India have done the same.

Countries that have banned disposable plastic bags include Italy, China, Bangladesh, many countries in Africa including Rwanda, Kenya, the Congo, and South Africa.”