Mayor's Report - May 2008

The Conundrum –– Plastic bags are very popular in our daily lives, but they have a harsh environmental impact on our ecosystems. Every year, approximately 500 billion plastic bags are used worldwide, and billions of those are dumped into the oceans. Countless wildlife, including sea-lions, whales, birds and turtles ingest the plastic bags and die every year. Plastic bags have very high durability, persisting in the environment from 20 to 1000 years before they decompose.

Clearly, single-use plastic bags are not good for the planet and are a persistent environmental problem that litter our roadsides and shorelines, and clog-up our landfills. In fact, Canadians use 10–15 billion plastic bags per year, one per day for every man, woman and child. Simple changes in our daily shopping habits and a shift to reusable shopping bags can dramatically reduce the amount of disposable plastics entering our waste stream and make a significant and positive impact on the environment.

The Reusable Shopping Bag Project –– In an effort to promote environmentally friendly living and encourage the use of reusable shopping bags, the Villages of Anmore and Belcarra are supporting a community initiated project that will deliver a reusable shopping bag to each and every household later this summer. This project will be 100% sponsored by local environmentally responsible businesses, and the goals of this project are:

The Chico Bag –– The Chico Bag has been chosen for this project because it is designed to be lightweight, compact and something that people will want to use. It is also the most used reusable shopping bag:

The Sponsorship Program –– Bags will be hand delivered to Anmore and Belcarra residents by local service groups. The sponsorship costs are meant to cover the costs of the bags, printing and delivery. Any remaining funds will be donated to the service groups involved in delivery.

Please do your part by supporting the Reusable Shopping Bag Project and by making that small, simple change in your daily shopping habits by switching to reusable shopping bags.

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