BANFF – A potential ban on some single-use items, including throw-away coffee cups, has been put on the back-burner until late 2021 given setbacks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The municipality planned to consult with the public this year on a strategy for reducing single-use items, but due to the pandemic and resulting competing priorities, this public input was postponed.
But administration plans to bring back a proposal in the last quarter of 2021, which resource recovery coordinator Carla Bitz said would consider an integrated made-in-Banff solution as opposed to a blanket "one size fits all" approach.
“I think it would be really appropriate for us to look at which single-use items are the most problematic in our jurisdiction and develop a tailored approach to either manage, or in a lot of cases, eliminating them all together,” she said.
“For example, single-use coffee cups are sited as an example of a material that would be a good candidate for a regulatory mechanism, as they are quite prolific within our waste streams.”
Single-use plastics, often referred to as disposable plastics, because they are typically used only once, include grocery bags, food packaging, bottles, straws, containers, cups and cutlery.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, there has been a notable increase in the use of single-use items in Banff and around the world, including personal protective equipment such as gloves and masks.
Bitz said a shift toward takeaway versus dine-in services, along with uncertainty regarding surface transmission of the virus and other public health considerations, has also led to a greater prevalence of single-use items.
“There’s certainly a shift and an increase that’s been observed locally and globally,” she said.
“At the beginning of the pandemic, we saw retailers asking customers not to bring their own reusable bags for a period of time, due to that uncertainty, and we’ve seen that renormalize again.”
The Town of Banff strives to be a model environmental community, and Mayor Karen Sorensen agreed the COVID-19 pandemic has presented a variety of implications in terms of single-use items.
“These are some of the challenges that all communities are facing with this pandemic in our world right now, both within Banff and around the world,” she said.
Despite the challenges of COVID-19, many jurisdictions continue to move forward on the issue of dealing with single-use items.
The federal government also recently stated its intention to move forward with a zero plastic waste strategy.
While noting that certain single-use plastics may be necessary to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, the government said plastic waste in Canada remains a growing concern.
In the Town of Banff, moving toward zero waste is one of several environmental priorities identified by council during this term.
In 2018 and 2019, grassroots environmental groups called on council to ban single use plastic bags or consider other ways to reduce the the impact of single-use plastics in Banff.
Council then directed administration to conduct a waste characterization study to better understand the state of single-use plastics in Banff.
Bitz said single-use items pose problems for many reasons, including challenges they present on the sort line at the waste transfer site.
“They make up a significant component of waste found in the Town’s pedestrian bins and appear frequently as litter throughout the townsite,” she said.
“It does cost the municipality resources to both service these bins and litter-pick items, which are destined for landfill.”
Meanwhile, Town of Banff administration is currently working with a local university student who is conducting research on how Banff might eliminate single-use items.
“This research also explores the viability of a re-usable container program for Banff businesses, as an alternative to single-use items,” Bitz said.
“Investing in supporting alternatives such as a re-usable container program will help set Banff’s community up for success if council wishes to move forward with regulatory measures on single-use items in 2021.”
