Vancouver McDonald’s to stop straw use in May; smaller businesses get more time

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – As of May 14th, McDonald’s patrons in Vancouver will have to specifically request a plastic straw in order to get one.

The company is the latest major restaurant chain to phase out certain single-use plastics in anticipation of a city-wide ban. But industry groups have been asking for specific exemptions and more time to allow smaller businesses to comply.

A report before the Finance and Services committee on Wednesday would, if passed, push the date of the plastic straw prohibition to April of next year, and the start date for a ban on foam cups and take-out containers to Jan. 1.

Staff are also working on bylaw amendments that would require businesses to provide bendable plastic straws to customers with disabilities who need them to drink.

“This is a very, very diverse industry and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, because different members use different types of single-use items. Some are more reliant on them than others,” says Restaurants Canada Vice President Mark von Schellwitz, one of the industry stakeholders invited to speak to the report.

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“I think today, if you banned straws, you would put all the bubble tea shops out of business, so we’ve got to be sensitive to that,” adds BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association president Ian Tostonson.

While both groups appreciate that city hall appears willing to be flexible when regulating single-use plastics, they’re concerned about a regulatory patchwork emerging between different municipalities.

“We have a lot of members that operate in other jurisdictions, and a lot of confusion is created by a whole mixed bag of regulations,” Von Schellwitz says.

“We would prefer the provinces to take over any sort of single-use item reduction strategy so we don’t have a patchwork of single-use item regulation bylaws right across the province.”

Tostonson cites Victoria as an example. The municipality has not only initiated a ban on plastic take-out bags, but have added a deposit to paper bags.

“If you go through a drive-through and you spend $6.00, you don’t want to be spending $1.25 on deposits. That doesn’t make any sense,” he says.

This week, the federal NDP added a ban on single-use plastic by 2022 to its election platform, noting Canadians throw away 57 million plastic straws every day.

But Tostenson says in many cases, the restaurant industry has been quicker to act on these environmental initiatives than the government’s regulatory process.

“If you motivate industry and give them some benchmarks, industry will come up with great solutions. But you have to have some flexibility,” he says.