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Single-use plastic bag ban to soon return to Salmon Arm

City of Salmon Arm reminds residents, businesses that checkout bag bylaw comes into effect July 1
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Single-use plastic bag ban to return to Salmon Arm on July 1, 2022. (Canadian Press photo/Paul Chaisson)

The time to use single-use plastic bags in Salmon Arm is coming to an end – again.

Salmon Arm’s Checkout Bag Regulation Bylaw comes into effect July 1. It states that new single-use plastic bags cannot be distributed to customers after June 30, 2022.

Residents can continue to reuse plastic bags they already have.

City guidelines say consumers must be asked if they require a bag and, if so, be provided a paper bag or reusable bag at a fee. The minimum fees proposed in the bylaw are 25 cents per paper bag and $2 per reusable bag.

Exemptions are provided for items where a reusable bag would not be suitable, such as the packaging of bulk items, frozen food, meats and poultry, flowers, large items that require protection and cannot fit in a reusable bag and more. More exemptions might be considered in the future.

The bylaw defines a reusable bag as a bag with handles for the purpose of transporting items purchased by the customer from a business. It is designed and manufactured to be capable of at least 100 uses, and primarily made of cloth or other washable fabric.

This is a restart for the bylaw, which first came into effect on July 1, 2019. The BC Court of Appeal then quashed the City of Victoria’s single use plastics bylaw, stating that municipalities must get approval from the provincial environment ministry before adopting such a bylaw. That meant Salmon Arm’s bylaw was unenforceable.

In 2020 the pandemic began so most stores stopped taking reusable bags.

In July 2021 the province amended the Community Charter to allow the banning of single-use plastics without ministry approval. In the fall of 2021, council directed staff to bring a new checkout bag regulation bylaw back to council, which is essentially the same as the previous one.

To see further details, go to the city’s website under ‘reducing single-use plastic bags.’

Read more: Ban on single-use plastic checkout bags to return to Salmon Arm

Read more: Compostable bags won’t be an option under Salmon Arm’s plastic bag ban



martha.wickett@saobserver.net
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Martha Wickett

About the Author: Martha Wickett

came to Salmon Arm in May of 2004 to work at the Observer. I was looking for a change from the hustle and bustle of the Lower Mainland, where I had spent more than a decade working in community newspapers.
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