Stores in Brossard are no longer allowed to hand out disposable plastic bags.
In February the South Shore city voted to ban disposable plastic bags, becoming the third city in the province to do so.
City councillor Alexandre Plante said the summertime awareness campaign has been successful, and that most storeowners and residents support the idea.
"Every measure that we take to reduce waste, to reduce our use of petrol-based products is a good measure," he said.
Starting Thursday merchants are allowed to give customers paper bags, or bags made of a thicker, reusable plastic.
Several stores said they will encourage people to bring canvas or heavy plastic bags, with grocery stories saying they will charge customers up to $0.20 each for heavy plastic or paper bags, instead of the usual $0.05.
On the first day of the ban, some stores were still selling the banned bags. City officials acknowledged it will take some time to get retailers onboard and shoppers bringing their own bags with them.
The measure isn't universally popular. One shopper complained to CTV, saying "(What if at the) last minute, I decide to come shopping and I have no bags to put my stuff in, what am I going to do?"
The bid to eliminate thin disposable bags is being challenged by the Canadian Plastics Association, which said that Brossard is basing its decision on old data.
The Association said that fewer disposable plastic bags are used today, and that 93 percent of them are re-used or recycled -- and said that thicker bags cannot be recycled.
The city of Montreal is going to ban plastic bags from its territory as of Jan. 1, 2018.
