Toronto Flummoxed by Bags and Cups

(Toronto, Ontario) While the Canadian economy is in the dumper just like the rest of the world, the brain trust leadership in Toronto is worrying about plastic bags and discarded coffee cups.

Just when one would want political leadership to remove trade impediments, Toronto's city leaders are doing their best to nit-pick businesses and the citizenry.

Toronto has ordered retailers to charge customers 5 cents each for plastic shopping bags in June, and some store owners have been asking whether they'll have to charge sales tax.

Those who have asked the city for legal guidance have come away empty-handed.

"Our legal (department) doesn't provide legal opinions to anyone but the city," said Patricia Barrett, of the city's solid waste department.

So, Toronto is in full sky-is-falling, global-warming panic mode and charging forward but not really sure where the end is.

Meanwhile, the 40-member Toronto Coffee Cup Disposal Task Force has dedicated six months and $50,000 in consultant fees to conclude that there is no easy answer to the "problem" of recycling discarded coffee cups.

City staff said customers who bring their own cups should get a 20-cent discount on tea or coffee drinks. They also said paper cups with plastic lids should be banned, because paper recyclers complain the lids contaminate the paper.

The recommendations didn't fly.

Toronto council gave in to a furious lobbying effort by the takeout industry. Instead of making a decision, council set up a city-industry task force and gave it an April deadline.

Consequently, the city council meetings are blah blah, plastic bags, blah blah, coffee cups and people are losing jobs as wealth evaporates in a worldwide economic downturn.