Fort St. James District is moving towards banning single-use plastic, thanks to the efforts of several dozen students from David Hoy Elementary who pushed for the change in their hometown.
On June 28, the mayor and council of Fort St. James passed a motion to draft a bylaw to ban items like checkout bags, straws, stir sticks, cutlery and foam containers among others.
The local government’s decision came after student representatives spoke to the council on June 12 and presented over 100 signed letters asking to ban plastic.
The students, accompanied by school teacher Gail Hiebert and Brenda Gouglas from Greening Up Fort a non-profit, provided information on how plastics affect the environment, pollute the environment, harm humans, and are introduced into the environment.
While the bylaw has been drafted by the district staff, the ban will take effect once it is adopted after three readings. The second reading of the bylaw is set to take place at the July 26 council meeting.
A transition period will be made available to local businesses to adapt to the changes as well.
In B.C., the provincial government has said that each municipality can make its own single-use plastic ban laws. Currently, over 20 municipalities in the province already have a bylaw when it comes to single-use plastic.
On June 20, the federal government also announced a new law into effect which will see single-use plastic items mentioned above. The federal policy will see Canada banning the import and manufacturing of most of these single-use plastics by December. The ban fully kicks in during December, 2023 and businesses can continue selling their remaining stock of these items until then. By the end of 2025 Canada will no longer export any of the six plastic items being banned.
READ MORE: Fort St. James students asking district to implement ban on single-use plastic