Georgian Bluffs council narrowly defeated a motion to eliminate the free bag with a vote of 4-3 at last night’s meeting.
Mayor Alan Barfoot says there was a hot debate on the issue at committee of the whole.
While the township struggles to meet with the Ministry of Environment to get approval to expand their landfill site, Councillor Carol Barfoot says people need to be more aware of the waste they produce.
She says it wouldn’t matter to her if there was 20 years left in the landfill, she still would have voted to eliminate the free garbage bag.
Barfoot says she tried an experiment in her home, and found she could produce as little as one shopping bag of garbage per week.
She says it just takes conscious effort to recycle.
Councillor Ryan Thompson is also disappointed council did not eliminate the free garbage bag.
He says council missed an opportunity to take a lead in promoting environmental change.
Thompson says we need to recognize we are in a crisis when it comes to waste.
Council’s next debate will be whether to raise the bag tag price for subsequent bags of garbage.
Currently, the bag tags are one dollar, and some councillors would like to see that increase to two dollars per bag.
Mayor Barfoot says they’ll have to hold a public meeting into the issue first.
