TORONTO - Plastic shopping bags in Toronto can now be given away for free again, but their days are numbered.
The five-cent fee Toronto stores have been required to charge for the bags is no longer in effect.
As of today, it's up to retailers to decide whether shoppers will fork out a fee to take home a single-use bag.
The move follows a pair of motions on plastic bags passed by the city earlier this month.
But twenty-seven of 44 councillors also voted to pass a motion banning plastic bags entirely from stores starting next year -- making Toronto the biggest Canadian city to do so.
Paper shopping bags are still allowed to be handed out, and shoppers are being encouraged to adopt reusable bags.
