Canada moves to ban single-use plastics by 2025 amid recycling failures
21 Jun 2022 --- The Canadian government is revealing long-awaited plans to ban single-use plastics after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to prohibit hard-to-recycle plastic production in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic stalled his plans, but tomorrow the government will finally publish official regulations based on a timeline spanning to 2025.
The legislation, titled the “Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations,” will outlaw the manufacture, import and sale of six categories of single-use plastics: checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, ring carriers, stir sticks and straws.
The ban on the manufacture and import of those six types of items will begin in December 2022, and the ban on sale a year later. By 2025, Canada will also ban export, making it “the first among peer jurisdictions to do so internationally,” according to the government announcement.
Exceptions in the regulations ensure single-use plastic flexible straws remain available in stores and health care facilities, under certain conditions, for people who need them.
Canada’s plastic crisis
Only 8% of the plastic Canada discards gets recycled, highlights federal health minister Jean-Yves Duclos, adding that 43,000 metric tons of single-use plastics enter the environment every year, mostly in waterways.
By 2025 export of single-use plastics from Canada will be banned.“The Canadian population was very clear with us,” he continues. “They’re tired of seeing plastic trash in parks, streets and other locations.”
A research study published by Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2019 found that 3.3 million tons of plastic were thrown out, almost half of it plastic packaging. Less than one-tenth of that was recycled. Most of the plastic ends up in landfills, which will take hundreds of years to decompose.
Notable exceptions
The regulations also contain some notable exceptions compared to other single-use plastics regulations, such as the EU’s Single Use Plastics Directive. Canadian retailers will be allowed to sell single-use plastic flexible straws if it is packaged alongside a beverage container and as long as the packaging is done off-premises.
They’ll also be permitted to sell packages of 20 single-use straws, provided they are kept out of customer view.
Also, absent from the new regulations are bans on plastic packaging for consumer goods – the leading source of plastic waste globally. However, Canada has promised to ensure all plastic packaging contains at least 50% recycled content by 2030.
Last year, McDonald’s Canada introduced wooden stir sticks, paper straws and wooden cutlery – excluding McFlurry spoons – to its 1,400 restaurants nationwide.
By Louis Gore-Langton
