Single Use Items

New Bylaw for Single-Use Items
  1. Overview
  2. Why Ban?
  3. Adopted Bylaw
  4. Implementation
  5. business support
  6. Alternatives

Single-use items are primarily made from fossil fuels and are designed to be used one time and then typically disposed of by being sent to the landfill. We all know it’s better to avoid single-use items. In Revelstoke, Bylaw 2263 which bans plastic checkout bags, foam containers and plastic straws was adopted by Council on January 11, 2022.

The City of Revelstoke will provide digital education materials to affected businesses to support the transition to better options. The City will also raise awareness about the ban in the community and why it is important to avoid single-use items.

It’s time to change the way we look at waste. Instead of creating large amounts of unnecessary waste from single-use items, we need to select materials that can be re-used or recycled multiple times into new products. Changes like these take leadership.

As a part of the City of Revelstoke’s Strategic Priorities the City is undertaking in an effort to pursue “green” initiatives that enable the City of Revelstoke to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate change, as greenhouse gases are emitted at each of each stage of the plastic lifecycle. Although Recycle BC currently accepts plastic containers, plastic bags and overwrap and other flexible plastic packaging there are small actions we can take to limit the amount of plastic ending up in the landfill. In the 2018 Waste Characterization Study the CSRD performed at the Revelstoke landfill, plastic was the second largest component of waste. Below is some background on the problem with plastics and some tips to reduce plastic waste.

Tips to Reduce Plastic Waste
The Problem with Plastics
The Problem with Paper Cups
The Problem with Bottled Water