BYOB

Bring Your Own BAG! Today the ban on single-use shopping bags in Ft. Mac begins. That means no more plastic or paper bags at any grocery or retail stores in town – if you want your purchases to be in a bag, you gotta bring your own! The only exceptions are for liquor stores, take out restaurants and pharmacies (because no ones needs to know you just bought hemorrhoid cream!)

I think the idea is good – the city is trying to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills, hopefully reducing litter, and it might also help improve Ft.Mac’s environmental reputation. But there are definitely times when it’s going to be super frustrating. Like when you’re in the checkout line with an overflowing shopping cart and realize you forgot your bags. Or, when you run into the mall for one little thing, but then you see a giant sale at your favourite store, so you either have to go all the way back out to your car in the freezing cold to grab your bags, or, you have to shell out $$ and buy news ones there. Also I read in the paper today that some stores are worried that asking people to bring their own bags could result in an increase in thefts.

But I guess we’ll see how it goes! I already went to the grocery store today, cloth bags in hand, and I didn’t die. There might be a few raging customers at first, but I’m sure we’ll all eventually adjust.