On May 9th, 2007, the Government of Ontario announced it had reached an agreement with key industry, retail and environmental leaders to reduce Ontarians use of plastic bags by 50% over five years. Summerhill Impact saw this as an opportunity to learn the best practices and take the key learnings to develop a public outreach program that would help the Government achieve its goal.

The plastic bag research report was commissioned in 2008 on behalf of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment. Summerhill Impact researched best practices from four jurisdictions (Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and California), all of which are in the process of trying to reduce plastic bag consumption. The best practices highlighted in the report included three different approaches to plastic bag reduction: a voluntary approach, a levy/taxation scheme and a plastic bag ban.

A key finding from this research was that any approach to reducing plastic bag usage works best when supported by government, non-government, environmental groups, industry associations and community leaders and involves strong education and awareness campaigns along with strong promotion of alternatives. Based on this research, Summerhill Impact identified several key considerations that could help maximize a plastic bag reduction strategy in Ontario.