Northwest Territories imposes plastic bag tax

The plastic bag ban has headed north.

The Northwest Territories (NWT) government has imposed a $0.25 fee on all non-reusable plastic and paper bags in all stores in the territory.

The fee was effective February 1, 2011, and mandates that all NWT retailers charge 25 cents for the non-reusable bags; prior to this, the fee was only imposed on disposable bags in grocery stores.

The fee was introduced in January 2010 through the NWT’s Waste Reduction and Recovery Act.

The fee doesn’t target everything, however. It excludes bags used inside stores for unpackaged bulk items such as baked goods, produce, and small hardware items, and also doesn’t apply to bags used for prescriptions, dry cleaning, and primary packaging of prepared food.