The City of Vancouver wants to remind residents that as of tomorrow (January 1) all plastic shopping bags are banned.

As well, there will no longer be any free single-use cups in coffee shops and other businesses.

The city said in a  release today (December 31) that the new by-law will require businesses to charge shoppers a minimum of 15 cents for paper shopping bags and $1 for new reusable shopping bags

Businesses that serve drinks will have to charge customers at least 25 cents for every single-use cup used. Those who bring their own cups will not be charged.

Bans on Styrofoam containers and packaging and plastic straws in Vancouver came into effect in 2020 after being postponed from 2019 after complaints from businesses that they were not given enough time to adjust to the by-law, which is intended to reduce waste from the single-use items.

The city has previously said that waste from items like fast-food containers and disposable coffee and soft-drink cups made up about half of all trash collected from public bins and that it constituted much of the litter on city streets.

All fees from charging customers for paper and reusable shopping bags and single-use cups stay with the businesses, which are "encouraged" by the city "to invest in reusable alternatives, such as dishwashers, reusable cup-share or “take-a-bag, leave-a-bag” programs", according to the release.