Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan says last night's vote to pass off a decision to ban plastic bags to Metro Vancouver officials wasn't about being anti-environmental, but about having a bigger impact.

"We know there are other studies going to be planned as well, it's going to take a while do that, why doesn't all the municipalities get together and do one study applicable to all cities."

This after the battle for those fighting to ban plastic bags just got harder. On Thursday Vision Councillor Tim Stevenson led a motion to look at the city's options for reducing and phasing out the use of plastic bags in Metro Vancouver. But the NPA-led council voted to pass the debate to the Metro Vancouver Board, which includes all the municipalities in the Lower Mainland, instead of going ahead with the proposal.

Stevenson said he thinks the proposal will just get lost in the shuffle.

"I think that's going to get lost in never never land. You've got to get all those municipalities behind it, and it's like herding cats," he said.

Councillor Peter Ladner defended the decision, saying the proposal would be better executed at a regional level, not just in Vancouver itself.

"I'm saying, let's do it at a regional level," he said after the council meeting. "Same thing, report back in 90 days on phasing out the bags, but it would apply to all the municipalities, they would all find out what the implications were, and they could all make their own individual decisions if they chose to do that."

With 22 municipalities in Metro Vancouver there is no guarantee there will be an unanimous agreement to ban plastic bags.

But the move to ban them is already happening with some major grocery chains. Whole Foods, with hundreds of locations in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, announced this month it would ban the bags on Earth Day, April 22nd. Capers Whole Foods markets, with four locations in the Lower Mainland, will ban the bags the same day.

On Friday, former Prime Minister Paul Martin was spotted shopping at a local bookstore in Vancouver. He told CTV's Janet Dirks he wouldn't take a plastic bag for his purchases, sensing the anti-bag zeitgeist.

"I think it's inevitable, you take a look at landfill sites all over the country they are jammed, they're going to have to.

Plastic bags last an average of 1,000 years before they break down. Sierra Club spokesperson Katherine Speigelman told CTV News this was council's opportunity to show some leadership on a serious environmental problem.

"All over the world, there is wildlife that is experiencing unimaginable awfulness as a result of the film plastic in the ocean, and the palettes of plastic, and the lids," she said. "We don't need all these bags, and it's time for council to show some leadership."

While environmentalists have long been advocating the abolishment of the hazardous bags, a youth group that supports the idea of a plastic bag ban has created an email campaign on social networking site Facebook. The list, called "Ban the plastic bag - Vancouver" has garnered support from Vancouverites who support the initiative.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Dave Pinton and Janet Dirks