Coastal Victory: The City of Victoria adopts the Single-Use Items Reduction Bylaw
We’ve all gone to a restaurant for a quick bite on-site, only to have our meal wrapped in a mountain of single-use packaging. While it looks like our meal is ready for takeaway, we’re not going anywhere. Unfortunately, only the packaging waste will journey to the landfill after we depart.
In 2023, the Surfrider South Vancouver Island Chapter (SVI Chapter) launched a campaign to prevent this type of plastic pollution and wasting of other single-use items. The campaign supported the City of Victoria in adopting the Single-Use Items Reduction Bylaw (the bylaw). Through this proposed bylaw, single-use items would be reduced, and reusable dishware would be mandated for dine-in at local restaurants. Part of the SVI Chapter’s campaign efforts included getting a coalition of restaurants to sign on as supporting establishments, who also signed on to our letter to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy (MOECCS). The SVI chapter then sent the letter to the MOECCS and urged them to approve the bylaw in follow-up meetings. Once again demonstrating leadership in addressing plastic pollution, the MOECCS approved the bylaw in July 2024, and on September 5, 2024, the City of Victoria Council voted to adopt the bylaw.
The City of Victoria’s bylaw decision rings in the newest coastal victory for the Surfrider Canada network, and the bylaw will be phased in between December 2024 and March 2026. The bylaw obliges businesses to distribute food ware accessories, including utensils, stir sticks, condiments and straws only when requested and to serve food and beverages in reusable dishware to customers dining on-site. Making reusable dishware a legal requirement is an essential step in the transition away from single-use items, which burden landfills, pollute the environment, are greenhouse gas intensive, and pose an issue for human health.
According to the City of Victoria’s press release, “Over 220,000 single-use items are thrown away in Victoria every day. Packaging materials, including single-use items, add up to 17 per cent of the material currently sent to Hartland Landfill. The City’s bylaw is anticipated to eliminate up to 60 million single-use items from being distributed each year.”
This coastal victory reflects a history of collaborating with local businesses, and showcasing businesses leading the way in eliminating plastics and adopting circular operations. The SVI Chapter has been working to reduce single-use plastics with businesses through plastic ban campaigns, including the successful Ban the Bag Campaign, and the ongoing Ocean Friendly Business Program. The City of Victoria has also followed this approach, as they began engaging the business community and related stakeholders on the bylaw in 2019. This coastal victory is also another important milestone in our endeavour to end the plastic era. Like other local government bylaws that reduce single-use plastics, we can use this success to advocate for the same regulatory change at the provincial, national and international levels. Ideally, we’ll soon be able to walk into any restaurant across the country knowing they provide reusable dishware for dine-in and takeaway food service. Ideally, reliance on single-use items will be replaced by the widespread adoption of reusable systems in food service, food retail, shopping and retail, personal care products, household products, transportation and delivery, as well as office and school supplies. Together, we can continue making this reality, and turn the tide on plastic pollution once and for all.
