A Robust Reuse Policy in Action
How are things going in Banff, two years after passing a visionary waste reduction bylaw?
The Town of Banff, located in Canada’s first National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, receives over 4 million visitors each year and has no landfills or recycling facilities—presenting both unique opportunities and challenges to achieving the Town’s goal of moving toward zero waste. In 2023, they passed a groundbreaking Single-Use Item (SUI) Reduction Bylaw & Strategy. The bylaw requires reusables for on-site dining, while a voluntary program, called Banff Borrows, focuses on collaborating with business and non-profit sector partners to work toward a citywide reusable system for takeaway cups & containers.
We spoke with Environmental Coordinator Carla Bitz on the Indisposable Podcast shortly after the bylaw and strategy was passed about the grassroots efforts that led to its passage. Now, about 18 months into implementation, we thought we’d check back to see how things are going as Banff models innovative reuse policy in action.
What are some of the milestones you’ve been able to celebrate so far, implementing this program?
SUI Bylaw:
We are seeing quick-service restaurants (QSR) either bring back or implement new reuse systems and are learning that there is broad recognition in the QSR industry that we need to go back in this direction. They understand that there is an enhanced customer experience with reuse, partially as a result of policies like this coming into place. The Banff McDonald’s, for example, is the second in Canada to implement reusables onsite.
We are also seeing many events in Banff starting to utilize reusables when they otherwise would have defaulted to disposable, because it’s required in the bylaw. The Banff Farmers Market, Made with Love Craft Spirits Festival, Canada Day, G7 Summit Media Centre, community events, and more all featured reusables over the last year.
Banff Borrows:
While addressing takeaway services in Banff is voluntary, I believe that it being complemented by policy (the SUI Reduction Bylaw) has strengthened its rollout, helping create a culture that is working toward reuse. We removed a reusable takeaway mandate from the bylaw to compromise with businesses who told us they would rather address it as a leadership item. It has been great to work collaboratively with business and tourism associations to support them as they follow through on that commitment. The Open City cup reuse system currently has approximately 15 participants, and the next phase is focused on closed-loop systems and events.
This reuse initiative has also trickled over to the neighboring community of Canmore, which will begin implementing reuse at events this summer under the name “Canmore Borrows.”
What are some of the challenges you continue to face?
Some of the challenges we face are unique to Banff, while others are universal.
Banff itself is an extremely busy tourist destination, and sometimes doing reuse takes longer, or impacts businesses’ bottom line. For example, with a lineup out the door of a café, single-use can be quicker—and quicker turnaround means more customers served. So even though generally speaking, procuring single-use is ultimately more expensive than reuse, the sheer volume of customers can make the single-use option more profitable in some business models.
Also, about 25% of Banff’s population turns over every 6 months as staff move through seasonal positions, so constant re-education is needed in order to keep employees trained in the reuse system.
More universally speaking, it is undeniable that disposable is still the default and what people are used to. We continue to work against a culture that defaults to disposables, despite the fact that through most of history, reuse was the norm. I find it fascinating how in the last decade or two we seem to have forgotten how natural it is to eat off real plates and bowls rather than paper or plastic stuff. Last week I had a business owner tell me that their customers are often perplexed by the simple, reusable ceramic bowls that they use for dine-in, as they search for the proper disposal bin for them!
Because disposables are so normalized, there is a learning curve with takeaway reuse. To me, dine-in reuse should be common sense, but takeaway reusables are indeed a new concept for consumers to adjust to. I see it as being similar to recycling or composting in that it will take time and effort for this concept to normalize.
Is there anything you would have done differently, or not at all, regarding how you engaged with the businesses, the timeline of events, the type of education you provided for the community, or anything else?
We could have given businesses more time to adjust to the change upfront, as we ended up having to do so anyway once they pushed back in the Council process. But ultimately, it still paid off to start with ambitious timelines, since then the compromised timelines fell within a reasonable frame.
Additionally, we made a point to conduct a waste audit just before the SUI Bylaw came into place. It focused on some single-use items, but if I could go back and do it again, I would be even more detailed with those baseline measurements, so that we could have even better data to measure change against. Even then, having properly reflective data would be challenging with single-use items that don’t weigh much but are used in high volume.
How is enforcement going, and how are the restaurants responding? Are there penalties for non-compliance, or just an opportunity to correct-course?
We have an education-first approach to compliance and so far have managed to get to where we need to be with warnings that involve our enforcement teams. This strategy is most well-received by our elected officials and our small, tight-knit community. We have not yet issued a fine, but we may need to at some point, as progress ebbs and flows. For example, this summer I see some businesses that were doing really well in the past falling a bit off the wagon. When things get busy there are slip-ups, and we are willing/able to use education or enforcement tools as needed.
What changes have you seen in the community regarding attitudes to single-use waste and waste in general?
I have a sense of cautious optimism that we are shifting the social norm to a place where it is becoming less and less acceptable to use disposables. It is by no means perfect, but it seems that the topic is generally on the radar of most residents and businesses, and they are at least looking for ways to improve. There have been a few moments when I’ve heard of reuse initiatives happening that the Town was not involved in; those moments make me hopeful that there is a culture shift occurring that goes beyond municipal-led policy and programs.
Have you seen reuse continue to expand beyond restaurants?
Yes. Many hotels have switched from single-use to reusable coffee stations, and we even have one hotel that implemented a fancy “zero waste” coffee system for in-room service. The local movie theatre recently implemented a reusable cup program, and as mentioned, we are seeing reuse at events. We are also in talks with the Banff Gondola, our recreation centre, and other potential closed-loop systems.
In addition, we just launched a Borrow a Bag program which allows residents to borrow reusable bags for free in high-traffic community locations. The program has been really well-received, and many of our residents have donated those pesky stashes of reusable bags that they had sitting at home, which they are also super happy to get rid of. It’s a win-win!
You talked about and gave a lot of credit to the grassroots engagement that kicked off this project. Are they still involved in implementation or education? If so, how?
While the organizations themselves no longer exist, a couple of the volunteers are still involved with the implementation of Banff Borrows, which is great! We also partner with the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley, which became the “home” for Banff Isn’t Disposable and fostered its transition to Banff Borrows—which is now resourced sustainably in collaboration with the Town and business/tourism associations.
How have visitors responded? Has there been any pushback?
We haven’t specifically gone out and collected visitor feedback, but anecdotally speaking I hear visitors saying how impressed they are with the visible push toward reuse in Banff and how much they appreciate it, in particular given our national park setting.
In terms of pushback, by design, we haven’t made anything particularly more inconvenient for visitors. Our bylaw still permits takeaway services in disposable food ware, so they can have that if they want or need it. Instead, the bylaw focuses on reuse for dine-in, minimizing unnecessary disposable food ware for takeout (i.e. accessory items by request only)—and then offering alternatives for reusables for takeaway, i.e. with Banff Borrows.
What’s next?
We have a couple sticky situations that still require compliance efforts, which will be a focus in the coming months. I suspect by 2026 we should see really good broad compliance! Expanding reuse for takeaway through the Banff Borrows will be the biggest push, as takeaway disposables still comprise a great deal of Banff’s preventable waste. And lastly, we are focusing on expanding Borrow a Bag to commercial settings, including hotels and larger retailers.
