A letter writing campaign by Langdale Elementary students is getting some action.
The grades 4 and 5 students wrote letters to councillors in Gibsons calling for a ban on the use of plastic bags and straws.
A Grade 5 student named Angus wrote to Coun. Stafford Lumley saying, “Why am I concerned? Because sea creatures are eating them and they are getting stuck in the animals’ noses… I am hoping that the Town of Gibsons will ban plastic straws so Gibsons can be straw-free by 2019. Malibu and Seattle have, so why can’t we?”
Angus’s classmate Eden told Coun. Jeremy Valeriote in her letter, “I am writing to say that plastic doesn’t decompose in the environment and if it goes in the ocean, fish will eat the plastic and then we eat the fish and get little bits of plastic in our bodies… The Queen of England even banned plastic straws and bottles in the Royal grounds. I would love Gibsons to do the same thing to help the Sunshine Coast become a better place!”
Coun. Silas White got a letter from Grade 5 student Ashley. “If it were possible to ban straws in Gibsons and instead use metal or paper, that would be amazing!” Ashley wrote. “Did you know that Canada uses 57 million straws a day and most of the time we don’t even need to use a straw, we can just drink with our mouths!”
When the letters were presented at the June 19 committee of the whole meeting, White told fellow councillors he’d responded to explain the limits of municipal government authority to “just ban things” but promised to look into it.
Council passed a motion to request a report from staff about initiatives in Vancouver and Victoria.
Chief administrative officer Emanuel Machado said he worked on a plastics reduction strategy during his time with the District of Sechelt and Dawson Creek and found at the time that a municipal ban on specific products may not be legal.
Victoria’s attempt to ban stores from using plastic bags at the checkout was upheld in a BC Supreme Court decision that came down last week.
Letters from the Langdale students also made their way to the inbox of IGA manager Bob Hoy, who followed up with a visit to the class and then announced on Facebook that after having a “great discussion,” his stores will stop using plastic bags.
“The three IGA stores on the Sunshine Coast are going to remove our single-use plastic check-stand bags in the fall of 2018,” Hoy wrote. “Over the past five years we have given out over 15,000 reusable bags in our communities. It is time to change our habits.”
