Not even a month after its single-use items bylaw came into effect, Calgary's city council voted to begin the process of repealing it. The new rule had forced businesses to do silly things, such as charging for bags in drive-throughs. With French fries handed over on a napkin, falling to the ground, it wasn't a pretty picture.The purpose of this draconian regulation, according to Sharon Howland of the city’s waste and recycling department, was to give choice to residents as to how they pick up their food: “That’s the point of the bylaw: to give Calgarians the choice. Do you actually want these things or did you bring your own bag? Or do you have utensils at home that are perfectly good and that’s where you’re taking your takeout meal anyway?” In other words, start carrying Tupperware around in your car to hold your next McDonald’s run.It is also worth noting that this new bylaw actually does nothing to reduce waste or combat climate change. Forcing a person to use a recyclable bag instead of plastic for their grocery shopping just causes inconvenience and forced virtue signaling. To truly be “greener”— to be more environmentally friendly than plastic bags — a reusable bag must be reused over 7,000 times. Anyone who believes a flimsy cotton bag is going to last 7,000 trips worth of shopping is beyond delusional. More than that, only about 3% of people even bother to wash their bags on a regular basis. So, not only does this bylaw fail to have a meaningful impact in waste reduction, it may make you sick. You, or the checkout clerk.Field research yielded some interesting results. In one test, I went around to several fast food restaurants, ordered food, but deliberately declined the bag option for $0.15. Where food was ordered directly from the counter, food was still put in a bag, even though it was not paid for. At a different location, the bag fee was mandatory. But, I got three bags for the price of one. Conversations with management did reveal that this is a revenue generator for the business. Calgarians now have the pleasure of paying more for what used to be free, with no corresponding decrease in the price of the actual food we are buying. It would seem the City of Calgary is taking a page from the Trudeau Liberal Carbon Tax playbook, where we all pay significantly more than what we get back.In other words, this bylaw is a perfect example of climate-change-fuelled hysteria. Calgary, population 1.3 million, is not going to save the earth by banning plastic bags. The world’s 328th most populated city has just made life harder and more expensive for everyone in that city in a meaningless effort to 'green' the area. But, the socialists have bought in. Justin Trudeau himself would be proud of the absolute stupidity that city hall spits out.With the bylaw repeal set to be finished in May, Calgarians have a few more months of extra work ahead of them. It does seem that some businesses are already ignoring the lunacy, while others will continue charging you more for less. In the meantime, just to spite the buffoons at the city, treat yourself to some carbon next time you feel like a burger and maybe take a drive out to Cochrane.Conner Hall is an Engineer in Training who works in the energy sector in Calgary.
