Vancouver’s Cup-tastrophe
January 1st is typically a day when well intentioned resolutions go for a test drive, the Christmas decorations are put away, and coincidentally, when new municipal by-laws are implemented in the Lower Mainland.
As we are all now aware, the City of Vancouver took the first of the new year seriously, with the implementation of two new by-laws aimed at transforming Vancouver into a zero-waste community by 2040. Found in the Single-Use Item By-Law Guide, the new regulations target foam cups, foam take-out containers, plastic straws, utensils, single-use beverage cups, and shopping bags. Ironically, you can request a physical copy of this document for free from the City.
Material provided by the City of Vancouver.
The pandemic delayed two of the five by-laws, specifically the rules around single-use beverage cups and shopping bags. To break things down:
Cups
A min. fee of $0.25 must be charged for each single-use beverage cup distributed.
Food vendors must report to the City the number of single-use cups distributed in the past 12 months at every location with a business licence.
The cup reporting requirement is waived for each business location participating in a reusable cup-share program.
Shopping Bags
Plastic Bags
Ban on plastic shopping bags.
Paper Shopping Bags
A min. fee of $0.15 must be charged for each paper bag distributed. Min. fee increases to $0.25 in 2023.
Must contain at least 40% recycled content.
If requested by the City, business licence holders must report the number of paper shopping bags distributed during the previous 12 months.
Reusable Shopping Bags
A min. fee of $1 must be charged. Min. fee increases to $2 in 2023.
New bags must be designed and manufactured to be capable of at least 100 uses, and made primarily of fabric.
If requested by the City, business licence holders must report the number of new reusable shopping bags distributed during the previous 12 months.
By-law misses
At first glance, and maybe that’s all Councillors gave it, the by-law appears to be a step in the right direction to make the City more green and to combat single-use waste. However, there are a number of flaws. First, retailers get to keep the additional revenue. It is not collected by the City of Vancouver to reinvest in green initiatives, create a snow removal budget, road maintenance, or pay down debt. Instead, popular retailers and service providers, including Starbucks, Tim Hortons, McDonald’s, Lululemon, Nespresso, Aritzia, etc. continue to profit one cup and shopping bag at a time - with the Municipal government’s blessing!
To put things into perspective, let’s say the Lower Mainland has 60 Starbucks locations (we’ll be conservative) and each location sells 300 cups of coffee a day. At $0.25 a cup, Starbucks Canada will make an additional $1,642,500 a year. Now, the counter argument to all of this is to bring your own reusable cup - which would be great. However, due to COVID restrictions, many retailers will not accept your well-intentioned reusable cup.
Note: Reusable travel mug was offered and politely refused due to COVID policy
To provide even more context, in 2023 the price of a reusable shopping bag (and admit it, sometimes they get left at home) will increase to $2.00. Lululemon, who has always provided these bags for free, will get to charge $2.00 in a year’s time. Using the previous calculations, with five locations in Vancouver, and we’ll estimate they make fifty bag-worthy sales a day, that’s an extra $500 a day, and $182,500 a year. Keep in mind, Lululemon Athletica Inc. has a market-cap of US $41 billion, so why is the City of Vancouver giving them free money?
Second, there is no policing of the new by-laws, nor is there any one system in place for the City of Vancouver to track if retailers are using the collected fees to invest in reusable alternatives. While the fine print states that vendors “starting with the business licence renewal of 2023, the number of single-use cups distributed at each licenced location in the past 12 months must be reported to the City… We recommend food vendors put a system in place to track the number of single-use cups distributed each year. Examples include electronic point of sale (POS) systems, or counting how many cups are in inventory at the beginning and end of the year”. Instead of creating one versatile system for all vendors, the City suggests they find their own and hope that when the time comes the material necessary for licence renewal will be available. Talk about setting someone up to fail.
Finally, the disenfranchised are feeling the impacts of these by-laws the most. For example, The Binners Project, which looks to improve economic opportunity for a group of waste-pickers and reduce stigma around being informal recyclable collectors, has an initiative called the “Coffee Cup Revolution”. This program, which is supported by the City of Vancouver, demonstrates what a coffee refund system could achieve. This annual event, sees members exchange tens of thousands of cups for 10 cents a cup, administering thousands of dollars in refunds. To provide a better understanding of what this means, here is a breakdown of the amount of cups collected over the years:
2014 - 30,000
2015 - 31,300
2016 - 49,000
2017 - 53,783
2018 - 86,732
2019 - 96,285
Starbucks point program allows for customers to earn “stars” towards free coffee.
Let us also turn our attention to drink and meal vouchers. Many local organizations, such as Vancouver Odd Fellows, provide meal and drink vouchers for the homeless through their partnership with a local McDonald’s restaurant. The vouchers not only provide breakfast and a cup of coffee, but also a warm place to rest and regroup for the day ahead. However, with the new by-laws, those experiencing homelessness are also expected to carry an additional $0.40 if they want a cup of coffee as well as a bag to take their breakfast outside the restaurant.
How did Mayor Stewart, Councillors and city staff not see this as a critical flaw?
Hard Pass by Vancouverites
Twenty-five days after the new by-law came into effect, and after plenty of backlash from the public, Councillor Rebecca Bligh proudly put forward a motion asking city staff to look at how the new fee impacts low-income and vulnerable people, food delivery app services, and other loopholes.
Using Councillor Bligh’s own words, Vancouverites expect significant recommendations from city staff and we expect you and your colleagues, as elected representatives, to do your part in making sure that your words are not added fluff on twitter threads.
Solutions we want to see
With both feet planted in reality, we know that Mayor and Council will not scrap these two by-laws completely. Although in our opinion they should. 2022 after all, is an election year and these politicians have to tout their accomplishments if they want to see themselves back on Council. So how can they strike a balance?
We have a few ideas:
Effective immediately, remove fees associated with free drink and food vouchers, free water, points and reward programs.
Effective immediately, direct vendors to accept customer’s reusable cup for in-store orders. If this is not possible, suspend the program until such time when it is safe to re-instate it.
Create accountability surrounding the Single-Use Item By-Law initiative by publicly assigning city staff to actively collect data on businesses single-use cups distribution. Have this information published quarterly on the City of Vancouver website with contact information to reach the appropriate individuals or department responsible for data collection.
50% of funds collected from single-use cups and bags throughout the Lower Mainland be returned to the City of Vancouver, so that core programs and budgets are actively funded through this green initiative.
Actively re-visit by-laws to ensure support programs which address inequality in Vancouver are addressed in a timely manner.
Create a city-wide single-use cup refund system, similar to what is already in place with cans and bottles.
Council is expected to review the proposed changes, put forward by City Manager of Engineering Services, Lon LaClaire, on Wednesday March 2. With election day slated for October 15th, let’s hope Council heard Vancouverites when we collectively said they got it wrong.