The Town of Banff has passed a Single-Use Items Reduction Bylaw to support a range of voluntary initiatives underway to help reduce disposable items that are used once than go to landfill. The Single-Use Item Reduction Bylaw (PDF) focuses heavily on reduction and reuse and will be enforced in stages: The bylaw is informed by a set of Guiding Principles which focus on: intentional use of the word items rather than only plastics, moving away from disposable and avoiding unintended consequences, and a focus on to-stay, bring your own, and reusables, NOT disposable items made of alternative materials. Banff's approach is tailored in a way that makes sense in it's unique tourism-based context as a National Park community. Banff’s Single-Use Item Reduction Bylaw includes a requirement for businesses to accept customer cups & containers, a requirement for businesses to provide reusables for on-site dining, accessory items by request only, and minimum fees on paper & reusable bags All NEW businesses must have suitable dishwashing facilities and provide a minimum of 10 seats for on-site dining. This means that new businesses that want to offer take-away service only will no longer be permitted in Banff.

Goals and Impact:

The Town of Banff strives to be a model environmental community, where everything we do is guided by a goal to protect this special place. Single-use items are a highly visible type of waste that is seen and experienced by Banff’s residents and visitors alike. Taking action to reduce single-use items is one of many ways that the Town can lead by example and have residents and visitors from around the globe participate in zero waste practices that lessen our impact on the environment. Our municipality spends a lot of resources dealing with pedestrian bins that are filled with single-use consumer items, sorting disposables that contaminate our recycling and composting bins, and cleaning litter from our streets. As a town located in Canada's first national park, especially with wildlife and sensitive ecosystems surrounding us, we know that taking action on this issue will produce meaningful change.