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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's push to remove a mandatory five-centplastic shopping bag fee ended in an all-out ban on single-useshopping bags at a council meeting Wednesday. Toronto city councillors voted 24-20 in favour of a last-minutemotion introduced by Coun. David Shiner to ban plastic bagsentirely by Jan. 1, 2013. "I listened to my constituents, to the debate, and I thought it wasa really great idea to get rid of the bag altogether," Shiner toldCTV Toronto after his motion passed. An earlier motion to ban bags altogether by 2014 failed. Councillors also voted in favour of removing the five-centmandatory bag fee, passing it with a vote of 23-21. This means the plastic bag fee will be removed, effective July 1,2012, until the bags are banned altogether six months later. The final votes came after a heated debate about the nickel bagfee, which was introduced in June 2009 in an effort to reduce thenumber of bags in landfills and littering Toronto streets. For Shiner, banning bags altogether made sense. "How many times do you go to the grocery store and see peoplereally upset when they have to pay the fee," he said. "Then the bagrips on them, because those bags are garbage, and the retailer ismaking a fortune." The plastic bag levy generates about $5.4 million each year. Someretailers give a portion of that money to environmental charities,but they are not required to do so. Proponents of the motion to scrap the fee said the fact that thebag charge remains in the hands of retailers amounts to an extratax on citizens. "I think plastic bags are useful. They come in handy for a numberof things, so I wouldn't want to see us banning them," Ford toldcouncil before the votes. "But, again, I don't like to be forced topay six cents every time I go shopping." Councillors who wanted to keep the fee in place said plastic bagusage has gone down by half since the fee was introduced threeyears ago. Coun. Shelley Carroll said the city should keep the fee in placebecause it works and it has reduced waste going to landfills. "We're simply asking people to have a second thought," Carrollsaid. "Really know that you need it before you ask for that plasticbag." Coun. Josh Colle questioned the validity of even discussing the bagfee. "I would think, as a city, we have better things to discuss," hesaid, noting that the economy, job creation and transit, notplastic bags, should be up for discussion at council. "Here we are, we will have spent eight or nine hours today,discussing plastic bags," Colle said. After the vote, Ford questioned whether the city had the authorityto issue a plastic-bag ban, saying that the city could facelawsuits over the "ludicrous motion." "I just don't see how we have the right to go out and ban plasticbags," Ford told CTV Toronto's Scott Lightfoot. "To me, thisdoesn't make any sense at all." Ford's motion received the approval of the city's executivecommittee in May. That committee also called for retailers thatcontinue to charge the fee to donate a portion of the profits to atree canopy restoration program. The decision to ban bags altogether was not discussed at committee. The motion to ban single-use plastic bags altogether means Torontowill join other large U.S. cities, including San Francisco, Seattleand Los Angeles, which have already banned plastic bags. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China USB Pen Flash Memory , Food USB Flash Drive Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Customized USB Flash Drive today!
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