Bagscam: the great plastic bag debacle

Why are we being charged for plastic bags outside of Toronto?

By now you've likely seen this scenario played out at just about any retailer you may have visited for the last few weeks or so... "we have to charge you $0.05 for a plastic bag... the government says so!" Of course, there's a bit more to it than that, namely "or, we could sell you these uniquely-corporate-branded reusable bags for only $2.00 each... what'll you need, four or five?"

I guess I should be happy that capitalism is alive and well, although I'm less pleased with the stimulus for this latest outbreak of entrepreneurialism.

But what about this "government policy" behind it all? Well, it is true that the People's Republik of Toronto passed a by-law which came into effect 1 June 2009. Essentially the by-law requires retailers to no longer hand out plastic bags with purchases; instead they are instructed to charge five cents per bag in an effort to deter consumers from receiving the bags (the hope obviously is that consumers will go for greener alternatives). There is some confusion about whether or not the retailer is collecting a tax or a fee that he / she can keep. But that's not an issue from the consumer's perspective.

What I don't get is: I don't live in Toronto... but my GTA retailers are still charging the fee! Maybe the local or regional councils passed their resolutions quietly and I just missed them. Doing some quick Google searches for "gta plastic ban bag", "peel plastic ban bag", etc. produced nada. Maybe I need to find a better source for this.

There is a running synopsis of jurisdictions around that world which have gone this route at Drop The Plastic Bag where they also helpfully provide links to such non-biased sites such as Plastic Bags Are Evil (!). Looking at the news synopsis has, of course, turned up the Toronto by-law, as well as an article in the London Free Press which describes how for Earth Day all Loblaw's and Sobey's stores in London would be taking similar actions to those (then) planned for Toronto -- with A&P stores set to join in at the same time as Toronto.

But the Toronto-less parts of the GTA? Not a whimper about local bylaws.

The reality, of course, is that outside of Socialist Toronto's controls within its walls, it's really the retail chains which are jumping onto the bandwagon. The major grocery chains have all joined in, all pushing their own custom reusable bags or dinging you for their plastic offerings. Even non-grocers have joined in: this past weekend we were at a clothing retailer (part of a country-wide chain). We were informed that we would be charged for a plastic bag (or again, offered their own branded reusable bag)... but it was the way we were informed. Beside the cash register was a hand-scrawled misspelt cardboard sign telling us of the fee, all due "to government policy". When I challenged the cashier she didn't know what to say about the governmental aspects -- all she could state was the order came down from head office.

Again, capitalism at work.

So what to do: buy a set of cloth bags and carry them with you forever, give in and pay for the plastic bags when needed, or just do without and juggle your purchases back to car?

At first we played along: I purchased six cloth vendor-branded grocery bags in May (when the Fortino's stores actually started applying the fee.. they didn't wait for Toronto's by-law start date -- not that it had jurisdiction over the chain anyway), we did our shopping, we put the items through the checkout and... things got less than ideal from that point. Basically, the cashiers wouldn't bag a thing since they were "my" bags, not theirs. Similarly, the employees that usually assisted the cashiers in bagging large orders: not anymore. So, when you have a chain of shoppers going through a single cashier and no one was bagging anything until they finished unloading their entire carts... things got messy. And very slow. And frustrating. They seemed to have hit on a perfect combination: eliminate free bags, charge for reusables, don't bother with staff on hand to assist in bagging.

After three weeks of this identical scenario, we were not amused. Until one evening I had to make an unplanned trip to the local Fortino's so, naturally, I had not had a chance to pop home to get the bags first. Unfortunately I needed to buy quite a few things so juggling my purchases was not an option. So, this time, when I started unloading my items and the cashier asked if I'd be buying any bags I said "yes!". Then it got interesting. The cashier whisked the purchases through and then bagged every single one of them. With plastic bags. Better plastic bags than they used to give out. And they didn't rip right away, which usually forced you to put two items per bag, unless you wanted an accident when you tried to unload things. It wound up costing me $0.40. extra.

Yes, I know it's not green. But maybe some greener options are still possible. I know that there are those that debate about compostable plastic bags and the like... and maybe I'll look into that issue at some point. But, worst case, paper bags are still pretty nice.

My reusable bags are still in my car, ready for me to remember to take them in with me... until I remember how bad the service was when I used them. Until the retailers get their acts together and remember that the customers come first, I guess I'll be nickel-and-dimed for a while.