Single-use paper bags are coming back to the LCBO.
The Crown-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario has reversed course on the year-old change after receiving a curt letter from Premier Doug Ford.
"LCBO has received direction from the provincial government to take steps to reintroduce single-use paper bags at LCBO retail locations," the LCBO wrote in a statement emailed to LondonNewsToday.ca. "While we are not able to confirm an availability date at this time, we will share more details with our valued customers in the coming weeks."
Ford sent the letter addressed to George Soleas, the liquor retailer's president and CEO, on Sunday.
"I’m requesting that you take immediate steps to reverse the decision to remove paper bags from the LCBO’s retail locations,” Ford wrote. "At a time when many Ontario families are already struggling to make ends meet, every additional expense counts. That includes charging customers for reusable bags instead of the free paper bags that the LCBO previously offered."
Ford went on to claim the change has left people leaving the LCBO's more than 680 outlets "stuck" openly carrying alcohol in public.
The LCBO first announced plans to begin phasing out the free paper bags last April. It asked its customers to instead bring their own reuseable bag or request to reuse one of the store's cardboard boxes or 8-pack carriers. Like all stores, reusable bags were also available for purchase at the LCBO. At the time, Soleas said the plan to reduce the LCBO's ecological footprint would divert 2,665 tonnes of waste from landfills and save roughly 188,000 trees.
But Ford called the environmental merits of the LCBO's decision to ditch paper bags "questionable at best."
"Paper bags are an easily recyclable alternative to single-use plastic, which is why the LCBO adopted them in the first place," Ford wrote in his letter. "As a government, we are focused on making life easier, more convenient, and more affordable for the people of Ontario. The decision to remove paper bags has had the opposite effect."
The LCBO quit providing customers with plastic bags more than 15 years ago in 2008. It currently sells reuseable bags that range in price from $1.25 and $2.95, depending on size.