Ban of single-use plastic bags, fee for disposable cups now in effect in Vancouver

Guide to Vancouver's new plastic bag ban The New Year brought some new rules when it comes to shopping and single-use plastics.

New bylaws for single-use items are now in effect in the City of Vancouver.

As of Jan. 1, businesses are now banned from using single-use plastic and compostable plastic shopping bags, and must charge a minimum fee of 15 cents for paper bags, which increases to 25 cents in 2023.

To avoid paying fees, customers can bring their own reusable bags.

The new rules were supposed to come into effect in 2021, but they were pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"As a coastal city, it's important to Vancouver to reduce the amount of plastic pollution," City of Vancouver Senior Project Manager Monica Kosmak told CTV News in December.

Your next coffee run may also be a little more expensive, as disposable cups will now come with price of $0.25.

In 2018, the City of Vancouver reported about 89 million plastic shopping bags were discarded, along with 80 million single-use cups.

The owner of a Vancouver grocery store, Famous Foods, is not anticipating the new rules will cause issues.

"Certainly people in our store will be in favour of this and we are too," Cam Bruce said.

Bruce says a large number of his customers already bring their own reusable bags.

Last July, the provincial government made it legal for local governments to ban single-use plastics without requiring ministerial approval.

“More than 20 municipalities in B.C. are developing bylaws banning single-use plastics. Under the previous regulation, bylaws were approved for the municipalities of Esquimalt, Nanaimo, Richmond, Rossland, Saanich, Surrey, Tofino, Ucluelet and Victoria,” the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy said in a release.

The federal government is also expected to release its new regulations on single-use plastic items sometime in 2022.

With files from CTV News Vancouver's Ross McLaughlin