Leaf Rapids, Manitoba, just completed its first year as North America’s first plastic bag free community. In this story from the Vancouver Sun, read about how a small town of just 550 residents achieved its path breaking status. Sure you can get a plastic bag in Leaf Rapids, but it will cost you a 3 cent tax.

I really wish more governments would adopt this simple method to rid the world of this scourge. A small tax will make people not want any more plastic bags. Think it could happen only in a small town? The whole country of Ireland did it, and plastic bag usage dropped 94% in just one year.

Community marks a year without plastic bags
Lindsey Wiebe, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, March 31, 2008

A year after theirs became the first community in North America to ban single-use plastic bags, some people in Leaf Rapids say bringing reusable tote bags on shopping trips has become part of everyday life.

“Actually, it’s better than I thought it was going to be,” admitted Ken Seymour, manager of the Fields Store.

Seymour said at first he feared people would cling to plastic, and said there was some initial complaining from disgruntled shoppers.

“They just mellowed right out, and everybody accepts it,” he said of the town’s approximately 550 residents. “The people from out of town actually think it’s a good idea.”

The community about 975 kilometres north of Winnipeg promoted the ban as a way of cutting down on the hundreds of bags stuck in tree branches and blowing around.

Leaf Rapids bought 1,000 reusable bags in May 2006, donated five to each home in town, and passed a bylaw that charged a three-cent levy for people who opted for the plastic bags.

A new bylaw to ban the single-use bags entirely went into effect April 2, 2007, making Leaf Rapids the first community in North America to implement a total ban.

“It’s a noticeable difference now in our landfill site,” said Mayor Ed Charrier. “Everybody’s taken it very well.”

Charrier has become a figurehead for the bag-free movement. He’s been invited to speak at environmental conferences in Alberta and British Columbia, and is scheduled for another engagement in Winnipeg in mid-April.

“In reality, we passed the bylaw for Leaf Rapids, just thinking of our own esthetics and such, and trying to do our part,” he said. “I just never believed it would ever take off like this.

Stumble it!