Vancouver city council seems prepared to make changes to its single-use cup fee bylaw in the wake of criticism of the measure, launched last month.
The city’s bylaw requires businesses to charge 25 cents for disposable cups and 15 cents for paper bags, took effect on Jan. 1. It quickly met with critiques, including that it penalizes low-income people.
Council sent the bylaw to staff for review last month, and proposed changes from the city’s general manager of engineering services will be up for review on Wednesday.
Those hoping to see the bylaw scrapped completely will be disappointed.
City staff have instead proposed making drinks that are offered for free — including those received under a free drink vouchers — exempt from the cup fee by the end of March.
In January, several city councillors acknowledged the bylaw as originally drafted wasn’t working, after several reports of homeless people who had received free meal vouchers being charged for disposable cups.
The report also recommends the city work with non-profits to help set up a “low-barrier cup share program” accessible to people living in poverty, and further look at ways to reduce the effects of the cup fee on low-income people.
It also calls for council to make it mandatory for businesses to accept reusable cups by July 2022.
And it calls for staff to report back in the next year-and-a-half on options to make businesses offer reusable cups to customers who aren’t ordering their drinks to go, and participate in a reusable cup-share program for to-go drinks.
The report does not address another major criticism levelled against the cup fee, which is that businesses keep all of the money collected under the program.
The city has previously said that is to encourage businesses to invest in reusable alternatives and help cover the costs of adjusting to the new bylaws.
However, numerous critics have pointed out that large businesses, such as fast food chains, stand to make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year off the fee.
The city’s bylaw, which also bans plastic bags, is a part of its long-term strategy to reduce single-use waste items.
According to the city, people in Vancouver threw out more than 82 million single-use cups and 89 million plastic bags in 2018 alone.
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