Vancouver officially repealing single-use cup fees in May

Vancouver City Council has decided to repeal single-use cup fees, with the change taking effect May 1.

City officials took to Twitter to announce the change Tuesday.

“It’s official: The cup fee will be gone as of May 1st!” said Mayor Ken Sim.

“Today Council enacted the By-law changes to repeal aka cancel, the .25 cents cup fee. It takes effect May 1st,” said Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.

Today Council enacted the By-law changes to repeal aka cancel, the .25 cents cup fee. It takes effect May 1st.

— Sarah Kirby-Yung 楊瑞蘭 (@sarahkirby_yung) March 29, 2023

Council voted to make the change back on Feb. 15, when Councillor Rebecca Bligh said the city “heard resounding feedback from businesses and residents that this fee was ineffective.”

“With affordability at top of mind for many across Vancouver, repealing the cup fee was the right thing to do,” she added.

The bylaw saw people throughout the city have to pay an additional 25 cent fee for each beverage purchased in a single-use cup.

Along with businesses not having to make the 25 cent charge anymore, they are no longer required to accept clean reusable cups from customers or report single-use cup numbers when renewing their business license.

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The city encourages food vendors to remove the cup fee from in-store, online, and mobile point of sale systems, menus and receipts by May 1.

A release from the city explains staff will take steps to inform all affected by the change by updating posters, toolkits and more.

It also recommends business adopt reusable options moving forward to continue reducing single-use cup waste.

Read more:

• B.C. expands blue box recycling to include plastic straws, cutlery

The repeal of cup fees however does not impact other existing by-laws for shopping bags, straws, utensils, foam cups, and containers.