PLASTICS AND ENVIRONMENT CANADA
Bans on single-use plastics to start in December / Domestic chemical association “disappointed”
 The country is already preparing its first SUP bans for later this year (Photo: PIE) |
Canada is moving swiftly ahead with plans to eliminate the domestic market for single-use plastics (SUPs). The new rules, first broached in 2019, are to begin to take effect around the end of the year and be enacted incrementally up to 2025.
“Over the next 10 years, this ban will result in the estimated elimination of over 1.3 mn t of plastic waste and more than 22,000 t of plastic pollution," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “That's equal to a million garbage bags full of litter.”
Canada’s first steps set for December 2022 are an end to the manufacture and import of most plastic bags, disposable cutlery, straws, stir sticks and six-pack rings, with exceptions allowed for medical products and other “recognized cases.”
Sales of most of these products are to be phased out over the course of 2023, and exports banned from the end of 2025. Due to supply chain disruptions for some alternative products, reports said the ban on handing out plastic carrier bags will be especially unpopular in the retail sector, where margins are low.
Without defining what alternative solutions are available, Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s federal minister for the environment and climate change, said “businesses will begin offering the sustainable solutions Canadians want, whether that’s paper straws or reusable bags.”
Single-use plastics are seen as making up the lion’s share of plastic waste found on Canadian shores. According to government data, as many as 15 bn plastic carrier bags are used each year, and some 16 mn straws consumed every day.
Related: 75% of the world wants SUP ban
“Over the next 10 years, this ban will result in the estimated elimination of over 1.3 mn t of plastic waste and more than 22,000 t of plastic pollution," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. “That's equal to a million garbage bags full of litter.”
Canada’s first steps set for December 2022 are an end to the manufacture and import of most plastic bags, disposable cutlery, straws, stir sticks and six-pack rings, with exceptions allowed for medical products and other “recognized cases.”
Sales of most of these products are to be phased out over the course of 2023, and exports banned from the end of 2025. Due to supply chain disruptions for some alternative products, reports said the ban on handing out plastic carrier bags will be especially unpopular in the retail sector, where margins are low.
Without defining what alternative solutions are available, Steven Guilbeault, Canada’s federal minister for the environment and climate change, said “businesses will begin offering the sustainable solutions Canadians want, whether that’s paper straws or reusable bags.”
Single-use plastics are seen as making up the lion’s share of plastic waste found on Canadian shores. According to government data, as many as 15 bn plastic carrier bags are used each year, and some 16 mn straws consumed every day.
Related: 75% of the world wants SUP ban
Industry says ban will exacerbate climate change
The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC Ottawa; https://canadianchemistry.ca) expressed “disappointment” with the government’s plans, saying that bans of some single-use plastic items will not solve the overall problem of plastics pollution and the management of post-consumer plastics.
“Rather than bans, we need to invest in recycling infrastructure and innovation, including infrastructure to manage compostables, to harness the CAN 8 bn value of plastics that are currently sent to landfill and recirculate them in the economy,” said Elena Mantagaris, VP of the CIAC plastics division. The association estimated that demand for plastics could triple by 2050 to meet the country’s climate change and emission goals, “because plastics is an energy efficient material with a lower environmental footprint than most alternatives.”
Mantagaris added that the plastics sector is also a major contributor to the Canadian economy, worth CAN 35 bn annually and responsible for over 100,000 direct jobs in 2021.
While Greenpeace Canada (Toronto; www.greenpeace.org/canada/en) called the ban a critical step forward, “we aren't even at the starting line,” said Sarah King, head of the advocacy group’s oceans and plastics campaign. She added that overall plastics production must be reduced. “Relying on recycling for the other 95% is a denial of the scope of the crisis.”
In addition to the EU, which is implementing a wide-ranging ban on SUPs (see Plasteurope.com of 08.07.2021), other industrialised countries such as the UK (see Plasteurope.com of 12.11.2021) or Japan (see Plasteurope.com of 20.01.2022) are moving in that direction, but Canadian observers point out that the US –- the country’s neighbor to the south – ranks as the world’s leading contributor of plastic waste.
Related: UK survey finds consumers inclined to buying products without SUP packaging
US efforts to curb the glut of SUPs at a national level have been only piecemeal to date. Earlier this month, the US Department of the Interior said the sale of SUPs in national parks and on other public lands is to end by 2032 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.06.2022).
“Rather than bans, we need to invest in recycling infrastructure and innovation, including infrastructure to manage compostables, to harness the CAN 8 bn value of plastics that are currently sent to landfill and recirculate them in the economy,” said Elena Mantagaris, VP of the CIAC plastics division. The association estimated that demand for plastics could triple by 2050 to meet the country’s climate change and emission goals, “because plastics is an energy efficient material with a lower environmental footprint than most alternatives.”
Mantagaris added that the plastics sector is also a major contributor to the Canadian economy, worth CAN 35 bn annually and responsible for over 100,000 direct jobs in 2021.
While Greenpeace Canada (Toronto; www.greenpeace.org/canada/en) called the ban a critical step forward, “we aren't even at the starting line,” said Sarah King, head of the advocacy group’s oceans and plastics campaign. She added that overall plastics production must be reduced. “Relying on recycling for the other 95% is a denial of the scope of the crisis.”
In addition to the EU, which is implementing a wide-ranging ban on SUPs (see Plasteurope.com of 08.07.2021), other industrialised countries such as the UK (see Plasteurope.com of 12.11.2021) or Japan (see Plasteurope.com of 20.01.2022) are moving in that direction, but Canadian observers point out that the US –- the country’s neighbor to the south – ranks as the world’s leading contributor of plastic waste.
Related: UK survey finds consumers inclined to buying products without SUP packaging
US efforts to curb the glut of SUPs at a national level have been only piecemeal to date. Earlier this month, the US Department of the Interior said the sale of SUPs in national parks and on other public lands is to end by 2032 (see Plasteurope.com of 24.06.2022).
29.06.2022 Plasteurope.com [250555-0]
Published on 29.06.2022