Developing a Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy

September 2022 update

Proposed federal and provincial regulations to reduce the distribution and use of single-use items are anticipated to be finalized in late 2022, with staged implementation beginning in 2023.

The District is supporting local businesses in understanding and adapting to these anticipated regulatory changes.

Specifically, we are sponsoring a free, Zero-waste Coaching for Small Businesses program in partnership with the District and City of North Vancouver and Ocean Ambassadors Canada (OAC) that includes ongoing support on how to reduce single-use items, how to improve recycling and compost practices, as well as other zero-waste tips and tricks.

Learn more about Zero-waste Coaching for Small Businesses

To register for the Zero-waste Coaching for Small Businesses program, email zerowaste@oceanambassadorscanada.org. For more information about the program, please visit the Ocean Ambassadors Canada website.

For more information about the District's single-use item reduction strategy, please visit westvancouver.ca/single-use.

Background

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the District started collecting input on a Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy in response to Council’s Strategic Objective to reduce community and corporate waste by developing local policy or regulations to encourage the reduction of single-use items.

Report to Council presented on September 9, 2019

Report to Council presented on May 30, 2022

Recognizing that COVID-19 response has created new and unexpected challenges for everyone, the District made the decision to postpone the development of this strategy temporarily. Thank you to all the businesses that participated in this initial consultation.

To avoid creating additional complexity for local businesses, the District is deferring local regulation until provincial and federal regulations have been finalized. There will be other opportunities to provide feedback before the District moves forward with any regulatory steps.

Phase 1: gathering information from businesses (fall 2019)

We started the conversation with local businesses and business associations to hear their input and ideas, and hear concerns and aspirations on the topic of single-use items.

The District does not provide waste collection service for commercial properties and therefore has limited access to information about how businesses currently manage their waste/recycling.

Through the first phase of consultation, we were able to gather information from businesses to learn:

• if businesses are using single-use items and which items they are using
• the current challenges and opportunities businesses experience when using single-use items
• the ideas businesses have already initiated for reducing waste and single-use items

Thank you to all of the business owners and operators that completed the survey.

Definition of single-use items

Single-use items are designed to be used once for a short period of time and then discarded.

Single-use items include:

• takeout containers, including polystyrene foam containers;
• plastic and paper shopping bags;
• coffee and drink cups, including polystyrene foam cups; and
• drink cup lids

Other single-use items include:

• plastic straws;
• stir sticks; and
• single-use cutlery or chopsticks

Although there are many other types of single-use items, from balloons and cigarette butts to disposable pedicure flip-flops, the above items were the focus of our engagement.