HALIFAX – Toronto city council took the lead last week and approved a motion to ban plastic shopping bags.
The move created a debate right across the country, including in Halifax where a report looking into the possibility of a ban could be requested at next week’s regional council meeting.
Councillor Dawn Sloane told regional council Tuesday night she wanted to know how much plastic winds up in the municipal landfill, rather than being recycled.
The topic of bans has struck a nerve with Halifax residents, who have seen the municipality put various prohibitions in place in recent years.
People speaking to Global News on Spring Garden Road on Wednesday were divided on the issues.
“I don’t understand why they’re picking on plastic,” one individual said. “Paper cuts down more trees, takes a lot of energy and leaves waste to the landscape.”
“I think it’s fantastic… they’re bad for the environment,” another passerby said.
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Opinions aside, the question still remains whether bans work at all.
Steve Machat, Manager of Tobacco Control for Nova Scotia’s Dept. of Health and Wellness, says there tends to be an initial controversy over a ban, but opposition subsides with time.
Nova Scotia’s ban on smoking in workplaces and public places has been successful since it came into effect in 2006, but he says that’s because only about 25 per cent of the population were smokers by that time.
“You can’t imagine in, let’s say, 1950 trying to bring in smoke-free places legislation, when you had 70 or 80 per cent of the population smoking tobacco,” he says.
Jacqueline Gahagan, a health promotion professor at Dalhousie University, says bans also need regulation and enforcement in order to work.
But, she says allowing the public to have a chance to weigh in on the matter also works toward gaining acceptance.
“It’s the public health benefit versus the individual right to choose, so I think some bans have been more successful than others,” she says referring to Halifax Regional Municipality’s more recent ban on pesticides.
Gahagan says the public needs to be given the chance to consider the issue or they’ll show resistance to the idea.
“To do a sort of a ‘Whether you like it or not we’ve decided to do this without a public debate’ I think will be problematic,” she says.
*With files from Mayya Assouad
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