Restaurants and cafés are being given a grace period to exhaust their current stocks, but within a few weeks inspectors will be visiting to ensure the bylaw is being properly followed.
Starting Tuesday, you won’t be able to get plastic cups, straws and stir sticks at most Montreal-area cafés and restaurants, and plastic cutlery won’t be available for those dining in. Large Muffin Papers
On Thursday, the city unveiled its list of items that will no longer be permitted under its ban on certain single-use plastics, and it will mean changes for restaurants and cafés that serve takeout orders as well as delivery.
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There are different rules for people dining in or taking out. Restaurants must offer reusable or non-plastic utensils to their customers dining in. Those taking food out or ordering to their homes can only be given utensils upon request, and if they are made of plastic, it can’t be polystyrene. Polystyrene plastics are not easily recyclable, so they are banned. Delivery containers also must be made of non-polystyrene plastic. Any cup, straw or coffee stir stick made of any type of plastic is banned under this bylaw.
Coffee cups should be made from non-laminated paper or cardboard, while coffee lids should be only offered to those taking beverages out. A full list of the banned items and those that are acceptable is available on the website set up for the bylaw (guichetguta.com).
Marie-Andrée Mauger, the city’s executive committee member in charge of ecological transition, told reporters the spirit of the ban isn’t to simply replace one type of plastic with one that’s more recyclable, but to get companies to think about ending single-use items.
“The first thing is really to try not to use these items, and if you do have to use them, recycle what you can,” she said. “We need to get to the point where we reuse our items and give them the longest life cycle possible.”
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Restaurants and cafés are being given a grace period to exhaust their current stocks, but within a few weeks inspectors will be visiting to ensure that the bylaw is being properly followed. Fines start at $400 per violation, up to $4,000.
There are some exceptions: Non-profit food aid organizations, companies like caterers that only offer home delivery services and foods pre-packaged outside the establishment are exempt, as are plastic-coated cardboard cups, glasses and containers (compostable or not).
Mauger said recycling is problematic because items dropped into recycling bins in the city parks or sidewalks or in food court shopping malls are often not recycled. That’s why the city prefers that companies move to reusable solutions. She saluted an initiative of about 400 coffee shops that offer La Tasse, a blue reusable plastic cup that customers can get with a $5 deposit and bring to any participating shop for a refill or to get the deposit back.
Reacting to the news, Karel Ménard, the executive director of the Quebec coalition for ecological waste management, said this will make at least a small difference in the amount of trash that ultimately ends up in landfills.
“It amounts to about 20,000 tonnes per year; it’s not a lot compared to what we landfill every year, but it’s a start,” Ménard said. “You have to go step by step. This is a very important step because it doesn’t aim at recycling, but reduction at the source, which is another way of thinking.”
Ménard said the emphasis on reusable solutions is key because recycling plastics is an imperfect solution.
“If you put your recyclable cup in a bin on the street, many times it ends up at the same place, which is not the sorting centre,” he said. “There are no good answers because there are no real good solutions for these kinds of plastics. That’s why they want them banned.”
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