Reducing Single-Use & Takeaway Items
The City is seeking feedback on how to reduce single-use and takeaway items — such as coffee cups, plastic bags, take-out containers and plastic cutlery — and would like to hear from you. Have your say by taking the survey.
Open House & Presentation:
The City hosted a in-person consultation on Tuesday, October 2, 2018
at the BMO Conference Centre & Education Centre. The session included an Open House, presentation and question period. A recording of the session will be posted shortly.
Webinar:
A webinar was held on October 4, 2018 for those who were not able to attend the in-person consultation.
Online Survey:
The survey is open until October 28.
A series of stakeholder meetings will be taking place in October with representatives from sectors including food and beverage, retail, manufacturing, and accessibility. For more information about these sessions contact Robyn Shyllit.
Reducing single-use and takeaway items supports recommendations established in the City’s Long Term Waste Management Strategy (Waste Strategy), adopted by City Council in July 2016), which places priority on reducing waste and minimizing the amount sent to landfill.
The Waste Strategy directs the City to explore where greater waste reduction can be achieved via:
- banning of certain packaging or materials
- imposing levies
- mandating source separation
- implementing disposal bans
- developing local Extended Producer Responsibility measures.
In July 2018, City Council directed staff in Solid Waste Management Services to:
- consult with residents and stakeholder groups on single-use plastics and takeaway packaging items for targeted reduction, and solicit input on policy tools
- develop a work plan aimed to reduce the use of single-use or takeaway packaging or products
- develop a policy to restrict plastic straws in the City of Toronto.
Toronto’s efforts to reduce single-use and takeaway items also support and align with work being done at both the Provincial and Federal level.
Phase 1 of the consultations will take place in Fall 2018 to identify opportunities to reduce the generation of single-use and takeaway items in Toronto, including:
- Which single-use or takeaway items residents and stakeholders are most interested in addressing
- Preferred methods or approaches to reducing these items or promoting additional reuse.
Phase 2 of the consultation will take place in 2019. It will focus more specifically on the implementation approaches to specific items identified in Phase 1.
