Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Canada will ban companies from importing or manufacturing plastic bags and polystyrene containers to take away later this year, selling them later this year and exporting them at the end of 2025.
The decision to ban exports will be a welcome change for environmentalists who were dismayed because Canada’s initial plan was to ban items at home but continue to ship them abroad.
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Guilbeault publishes today the final regulations promulgating the ban.
In addition to bags and takeaways, the ban will affect plastic straws, bags, cutlery, shuffle sticks and six-pack rings containing cans and bottles.
There are some limited exceptions for straws to accommodate people with disabilities.
The federal government listed plastics as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act last year, which paved the way for regulations to ban some of them.
However, a consortium of plastics producers is suing the government for the designation of a toxicant, in a case expected to be heard by the end of the year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised for the first time in June 2019 that his government would phase out the production and use of hard-to-recycle plastic items, as it aims for zero plastic waste by the end of the decade. .
He initially said the ban would take place in 2021, but the scientific assessment of the plastics needed to implement the ban was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault and several other Liberal ministers and MPs will present a ban on plastics at a number of events across the country today. (Chad Hipolito / The Canadian Press)
The government also intends to impose standards that require a minimum amount of recycled content in disposable items, with the aim of creating a larger market for plastic material from recycling plants.
Canada’s domestic recycling industry is very small and the demand for recycled plastics is quite limited.
3.3 million tonnes of plastic dumped in 2019: report
Plastic waste has been a growing problem worldwide, with 10% or less of most recycled manufactured plastics.
A research study published by Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2019 found that 3.3 million tonnes of plastic was dumped, almost half of plastic packaging. Less than a tenth was recycled. Most of the plastic ended up in landfills, where it would take hundreds of years to decompose.
An estimated 29,000 tonnes ended up as plastic pollution, polluting parks, forests, waterways and coasts with cigarette butts, food wrappers and disposable coffee cups.
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup project in 2019 removed more than 163,000 pounds of plastic waste from nearly 4,000 miles of coastline in Canada. Documented transportation included more than 12,000 plastic bottles, 12,480 plastic straws and nearly 17,000 plastic bags.
Federal data shows that in 2019, 15.5 billion plastic bags, 4.5 billion plastic cutlery, 3 billion sticks, 5.8 billion straws, 183 million six-pack rings and 805 million containers were sold for take away.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have already taken action against plastic bags, as have some cities such as Regina, Victoria and Montreal.
Some retailers also moved faster than the government, with Sobeys removing disposable plastic bags at checkout counters in 2020, and Walmart following suit last April.
Many fast food outlets have also replaced plastic straws with paper versions in recent years.