The City of Guelph is taking the next step toward eliminating single-use plastics.
Last Tuesday, the full City Council passed a recommendation supporting the second phase of the city’s single-use items reduction strategy.
Beginning March 1, 2025, businesses must accept clean, reusable beverage cups from customers for serving beverages on-premises. Businesses must also provide single-use food accessories (such as cutlery, cup sleeves and stirrers) only upon request, with the exception of straws. Paper shopping bags must also contain at least 40% post-consumer recycled content.
The idea of allowing customers to bring their own reusable cups was raised at the meeting as an alternative to charging for single-use beverage cups. As New York City and other parts of the world gradually lift COVID-19 restrictions, there have been some health and safety concerns about how businesses will accept reusable cups or containers.
“We have procedures in place to ensure that there is no cross contamination,” said Heather Connell, manager of solid waste resources technical services for the City of Guelph.
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“We have consulted with Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health. Other agencies in the province are doing the same.”
The first stage of the strategy bans businesses from providing plastic shopping bags and polystyrene takeaway containers in 2023. Ms Cornell said the phased implementation was to ensure compliance and make the transition easier for businesses, adding that she did not foresee any difficulties in the future.
“We’ve only heard of 12 businesses that were not in compliance,” she said. “We took an education-first approach. Most businesses were able to comply after the education visits. Some businesses said they had run out of existing supplies and would switch to new materials.”
The city said in a news release that the latest phase of recommendations is based on a survey of businesses in the city.
The recommendations and proposed regulations still need to be approved by Parliament, which is expected to vote on them at its June 25 meeting.
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