TORONTO - Ontario wants to lead by example when it comes to protecting the environment by having government-owned liquor stores across the province stop using plastic bags, Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday.
McGuinty said he doesn't expect to see a provincewide ban on the use of plastic bags by all retailers, but he would like stores to follow the Liquor Control Board of Ontario's example and voluntarily phase out plastic bags in favour of paper bags or reusable cloth carriers.
"I don't see that (provincewide ban) happening," he said. "We have some control over the LCBO and we can provide some direction on that score, and we can lead by example. I would encourage all of our retailers to take a look at what they can do to reduce plastic bag usage."
Some LCBO stores have already run out of plastic bags, and each store will switch to paper bags, boxes or reusable carriers once it exhausts existing supplies of plastic bags, which are thicker than typical grocery-store plastic bags, making them reusable but also tougher for landfills to break down.
Tory says LCBO should stop using plastic immediately
Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said McGuinty should tell the LCBO to immediately stop using plastic bags and recycle any stockpiles of them rather than letting stores continue handing them out to consumers.
"He should be saying right now, if plastic bags aren't the right thing to use in the LCBO, let's stop using them," Tory said. "He professes to be a great leader in these kinds of things, and I think he if was, he'd say ban it now."
Not everyone agrees it's the right decision to make
The Canadian Plastics Industry Association said banning plastic shopping bags at the LCBO is a bad environmental decision "based on politics rather than scientific fact," and claimed that new plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than paper bags.
"The manufacture of paper bags is more energy intensive, requiring 2.2 times more non-renewable energy than plastic shopping bags, using 4.7 times more water and emitting 3.1 times more greenhouse gases," the association said in a release.
Environmentalists applaud the news
The Recycling Council of Ontario and environmentalists including the Clean Air Association applauded the government and LCBO for phasing out plastic bags.
The LCBO said its existing supplies of plastic bags will run out this summer, and the switch to more environmentally friendly alternatives is expected to eliminate approximately 80 million plastic bags a year from Ontario landfills.
There are an estimated 3.5 billion plastic shopping bags used in Ontario each year, and some can take up to 400 years to break down in a landfill.
McGuinty also called on Ontario consumers to use their own reusable carrier bags or to ask for a paper bag or a box when they visit a store instead of simply accepting a plastic bag for their purchases.
