Canadians will have to find alternatives to plastic straws and grocery bags by the end of the year, as the federal government makes final proposals to ban some disposable plastics.
Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo and a number of other Liberal ministers and lawmakers will present the ban on plastics in a series of events across the country today.
Guilbeault is also expected to discuss plans to impose a minimum amount of recycled content in other plastic items as the government seeks to create a larger market for recycled plastics in Canada.
Bills banning six plastic items were published in December, and the government must have at least a six-month phasing-in period after the final provisions are published this month.
Only six specific plastic products will be affected by the initial ban, after the government determined they were difficult to recycle but had easy alternatives.
These include straws, collection containers, grocery bags, cutlery, stirrers and plastic rings used to hold six boxes or bottles together.
The move comes nearly three years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised for the first time that his government would phase out the production and use of recyclable plastic products, as it has zero plastic waste by the end of the decade.
He initially said the ban would happen in 2021, but the scientific assessment of plastics needed to trigger the ban was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lawsuit continues
Following this assessment, which was finalized in October 2020, the government identified the plastics produced as toxic under Canadian environmental law.
This designation was necessary before any elements could be banned.
A coalition of plastics manufacturers has filed a lawsuit against the government for the appointment in May 2021, with the case expected to be heard sometime this year.
Plastic waste is a growing problem worldwide, with about 10 percent or less of most plastics produced estimated to be recycled.
Environment Minister Stephen Gilbo and a number of other Liberal ministers and lawmakers will present the ban on plastics in a series of events across the country today. (Chad Hipolito / Canadian Press)
A research study published by Environment and Climate Change Canada in 2019 found that 3.3 million tonnes of plastic were dumped, almost half of which was plastic packaging. Less than a tenth of this is recycled. Most of the plastic ends up in landfills, where it will take hundreds of years to decompose.
Approximately 29,000 tonnes end up as plastic pollution, pollution of parks, forests, waterways and the coastline with cigarette butts, food packaging and disposable coffee cups.
The Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup project in 2019 removed more than 163,000 kilograms of plastic waste from nearly 4,000 kilometers of coastline in Canada. The documented retrieval includes more than 12,000 plastic bottles, 12,480 plastic straws and nearly 17,000 plastic bags.
Federal figures show that in 2019, Canada sold 15.5 billion plastic grocery bags, 4.5 billion plastic cutlery, three billion sticks, 5.8 billion straws, 183 million six-pack rings and 805 million home containers.
Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia have already taken action against plastic bags, as have some cities, including Regina and Montreal.
Some retailers have also moved faster than the government, with Sobeys eliminating disposable plastic bags at its cash registers in 2020, and Walmart following suit in April.
Many fast food restaurants have replaced plastic straws with paper versions in the last few years.
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