Before going grocery shopping Tina Soldovieri equips her basket with reusable containers for meats, and cloth bags for grains and rice. She often carries jars for things like honey and tahini.

“We don’t come home with plastic because it’s pretty ingrained now,” said Soldovieri, the brains behind Roncy Reduces, a volunteer-led initiative aimed at convincing local shops to permit customers to bring reusable containers and bags, and lobbying participating businesses — more than 60 in Roncesvalles alone — to display a green sticker signalling their acceptance of green-friendly containers and bags. “It’s satisfying to come home and only having a wire strap around the spinach and a sticker on the banana.”

Literature on how to live a zero-waste lifestyle sits on the dining room table of her Roncesvalles-area home.

Soldovieri said her motivation to rally community groups behind her cause comes down to the fact that, “it’s a huge mountain of waste that we’re all creating together. If we all had a landfill in our backyard, we would be more eager to do better.”

Her dedication to reduce the use of plastic in her Toronto neighbourhood has sprouted several similar community groups. The Roncy Reduces initiative started in Roncesvalles in January, has since inspired a handful of volunteer-fuelled waste reduction projects — in places like the Junction and the Beaches — aimed at getting businesses and residents to ditch plastic.

For Soldovieri, who shops with a family of five in mind, it all started as a personal pledge to get her own household within reach of zero waste.

“I still have a garbage (bin), so we’re not yet zero waste,” she said, adding that she has downsized her bin in recent months.

Her meticulous management of everything that comes in and out of her household was achieved after months of trial and error and planning ahead of each days meal, said Soldovieri, who has a master’s in environmental education.

“Once you achieve one step then you move to the next,” she said. “You can’t do everything at once.”

Last minute shopping is major hurdle for people trying to break bad habits, Soldovieri said.

“The challenge is to be organized and not to do impulse shopping,” she said.

For some like Melissa Millar, who was shopping at the Meat Department on Roncesvalles Ave. last month, impulse shopping is sometimes unavoidable. Millar admitted feeling some shame for being caught with plastic bags.

“I wasn’t planning on going shopping,” she said. “About 80 per cent of the time I have my bags on me. When it comes to bringing your own container, that’s still daunting because it’s hard to know who is OK with it.”

Tareq Al A, who served Soldovieri and Millar at the butcher shop, shouldered some of the blame for being slow to provide more options, even though his store is one of the 60 allowing consumers to bring their own containers.

“We’re slowly trying to implement not using as much plastic,” said Al A, adding that about 60 per cent of his clients now use reusable bags. “We try to tell people to bring their own containers or bags.”

He said Roncy Reduces’ do it yourself approach is gaining steam as more people sign up to ditch their dependence on plastic.

Dozens of Roncesvalles-based businesses including restaurants, which now allow diners to bring their own takeout containers, gradually warmed to the idea of doing their bit as support grew along the strip.

“People (proprietors) know that it’s something we have to do, but some feel it might be too much work and a big hassle to change things around,” Soldovieri said. “There was definitely some hesitation to put our sticker on the door.”

“Now, they’re starting to feel like they’re part of building this community,” she said.

The concept is catching on quicker than Soldovieri imagined. The number of calls from residents of other interested neighbourhoods is increasing.

“People are really interested in waste right now and this is a model that is working,” said Sarah Van Exan, of a newly-formed group which encompasses areas including Little Italy and Little Portugal. “It’s a practical, ready to roll idea.”

Rebecca Pinkus is one of the people taking up the mantle of replicating the program in the Junction and Baby Point.

“In many ways, the local community aspect is what makes these programs special,” Pinkus said. “My sense is that this movement is going to gain traction around the city very fast.”

The concept has also found its way to the Beaches, which now has Instagram and Facebook pages dedicated to its promotion.

“We just got up and running,” wrote Adrianna Couto, a co-ordinator of the Beaches group, in an email. “This is such a fabulous initiative and we are thrilled it's spreading to neighbourhoods across the city.”

Roncy Reduces has done outreach and workshops at a handful of neighbourhood schools, including Fern Avenue Public School.

Plastic reduction initiatives are making waves as city staff hold consultations on reducing single use and other takeaway items after council directed them to accelerate efforts to implement the city’s long-terms waste strategy.

The infrastructure and environment committee recently received an update on the consultations as the city moves to a second phase planned for later this year.

As part of the consultations, staff spoke with 20,512 residents, food and restaurant businesses, retailers and manufacturers, academics and accessibility organizations, they reported.

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During the consultations, the city defined single-use or takeaway items as “any product designed for a single-use after which it is disposed of, whether into garbage or a waste diversion stream, as solid waste.”

That includes plastic bags, black plastic containers that the city’s recycling facilities can’t process and single-use coffee cups, most of which are not recyclable.

Staff reported “strong levels of support” — between 87 and 93 per cent — for reducing the items listed of those consulted.

And most who completed a city survey or poll — 75 per cent — supported some kind of mandatory way of ensuring that reduction, like bans or fees.

Staff say recommendations for the reduction of these items will be presented to consultation participants during the second phase and then put before council along with the feedback they receive.

At the May 23 committee meeting, Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 11 University-Rosedale) asked why the process was taking “so painfully long” to move forward.

Staff said they have yet to rule out any option and are working to properly consult residents and stakeholders.

Councillor Mike Colle (Ward 8 Eglinton-Lawrence) said residents are capable of breaking habits.

“That is a real addiction that we have here in North America,” he said of single-use cups.

Roncy Reduces has also grabbed the attention of city officials like Charlotte Ueta, acting manager of waste management planning, whose department is seeing an uptick in such community-based initiatives.

“There’s been quite a few communities stepping up,” Ueta said.

There is no system of quantifying the impact such groups are having, but Ueta’s department is now looking at the potential of community self-reporting and highlighting groups such as Roncy Reduces as best practises.

“It’s something we might take a look into further as we go into continuing to work on implementing a long-term waste strategy,” she said.

Starting in 2018, the city piloted a community waste reduction grant program, which provides up to $25,000 to community-based organizers. About $116,000 of the $125,000 earmarked was dispensed to seven community groups.

Toronto diverted 52 per cent of its residential waste away from landfills last year, city officials confirmed.

Initiatives like Roncy Reduces can help small- to medium-sized businesses get on board, said Jo-Anne St. Godard, executive director, Recycling Council of Ontario.

“The community up approach is the other side of the equation,” she said. “The Roncesvalles initiative is unique, but so overdue and such an untapped opportunity.”

“It’s starting to go viral and spread into other communities,” St. Godard said.

Correction — June 10, 2019: This article has been updated from a previous version that mistakenly said Toronto diverted 62 per cent of its residential waste from landfills last year.

With files from Jennifer Pagliaro