A cashier puts a customer's bottles into a reusable bag at a Montreal liquor store. (CBC) BYOB will have a new meaning at Quebec's liquor stores starting Thursday: bring your own bag.

The province's liquor board, the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ), is following through on a promise to get rid of single-use plastic and paper bags in its stores at the beginning of 2009.

"It's a green action. It's really a big statement for sustainable development," said Isabelle Merizzi, an SAQ spokesperson.

The move could stop 80 million plastic bags a year from being given out in Quebec liquor stores, Merizzi said.

In September, the SAQ started charging customers up to 15 cents for a plastic bag. Customers responded the way the SAQ had hoped, by bringing their own bags or buying reusable bags sold onsite.

"For now, actually, we close 91 per cent of our transactions without single-use bags. People are happy, customers understand our action and they participate well," Merizzi said.

Other provinces phasing out bags

Last fall, Nova Scotia's liquor corporation was the first Canadian province to completely eliminate plastic bags. Manitoba and Prince Edward Island are also planning to stop offering free, single-use bags.

In Ontario, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario encourages customers to bring reusable bags to liquor stores. If they don't, the stores provide paper bags or boxes for free.

The plastic-bag ban is part of a growing environmental movement that began in March 2007 when San Francisco became the first North American city to ban non-recyclable plastic bags made from petroleum products.

Setting the bar high

Environmentalists in Quebec hope the SAQ ban will spark a widespread snub of the plastic bag in the province.

'They're setting the bar really high for other retail stores ... to follow suit.'—Sidney Ribaux, Équiterre

Sidney Ribaux, executive director of Équiterre, said the SAQ initiative was easy to push through because of the province's monopoly on wine and hard liquor sales.

"They're setting the bar really high for other retail stores that now will have some sort of pressure to follow suit," Ribaux said.

The SAQ will continue to sell reusable bags at its stores at a cost of 75 cents to $4, depending on the size.

The proceeds will go toward the SAQ's environmental projects, including a green roof at the board's central distribution centre.