(Ottawa) The days are numbered in Canada for plastic grocery bags and polystyrene take-out containers.
Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault on Tuesday released draft regulations outlining how Canada wants to ban, by the end of 2022, the manufacture, import and sale of six single-use plastic items which are difficult to recycle.
The proposed federal regulations aim to eliminate six categories of plastic items from the daily lives of Canadians: shopping bags, utensils, food containers made from “problematic plastics”, rings that connect six cans , small coffee sticks and straws.
The proposed regulation provides an exception for patients and people with certain disabilities who need flexible single-use plastic straws in order to eat, drink or take medicine.
The draft regulation describes how each of these products will be defined. For example, the plastic bags that will be banned will be those made from plastic film, which will break or tear “if used to carry 10 kilos 53 meters 100 times”.
The utensils to be avoided will be those which will not keep their shape “when immersed for 15 minutes in water maintained between 82 ° C and 86 ° C” – almost boiling.
The public will be able to provide written comments on the proposed regulations until March 5, and the timing of final settlements will depend on the amount of comments received. Under World Trade Organization rules, Canada must allow a six-month phase-in period once final regulations are released, but Minister Guilbeault expects these measures to take effect immediately. by the end of 2022.
Clean up recycling
He recalled that banning these items is only part of the strategy, since items that will not be banned will always have to be recycled. “A lot of people are focusing on the ban – and this is important – he said, but one of the biggest challenges we have is cleaning up recycling.”
A report commissioned in 2019 by Environment and Climate Change from the firm Deloitte indicated that 3.3 million tonnes of plastic waste had been thrown away in 2016 and that less than 10% of this waste had been recycled.
There were then only 12 recycling companies nationwide. Canada has set a goal of recycling 90% of plastic waste by 2030 and Minister Guilbeault said work is underway to standardize and coordinate recycling between provinces. It also includes new standards for plastics, to make them easier to recycle, as well as a requirement that half of all plastic packaging must be made from recycled materials.
In 2016, nearly 30,000 tonnes of waste ended up in the environment, leaving rivers, beaches and forests with coffee cups, water bottles, grocery bags and food packaging.
“People are tired of seeing this garbage on our streets and I think some of the striking images we’ve seen around the world of plastic waste affecting our ecosystem have really touched people,” added Guilbeault. So they want us to move – and we do. ”
Too little, too slow
Sarah King, Oceans and Plastics Campaign Manager at Greenpeace Canada, says the government is not going fast enough or far enough. Mme King wanted all single-use plastics to be banned, including plastic bottles, cigarette filters, coffee cups and food packaging.
“Canadians have waited a long time for the federal government to take strong and urgent action to fight plastic waste and pollution, and these regulations certainly do not reflect this call to action,” she said Tuesday.
Mme King believes the government should also focus its energy and money on the transition that would move Canadians from a “single use and recycle” strategy to a “reuse and recharge” strategy.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said more than 18 months ago that some single-use plastic items would be phased out as early as 2021, but the pandemic in Ottawa delayed the scientific assessment that ultimately designated plastic products as “substances toxic ”under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. The next step was to determine which items to target first with a ban.
Industry challenges
Last May, companies then came together under the banner of the Coalition for a Responsible Use of Plastic, which is now suing the federal government for this designation of plastic products as “toxic substances”.
The coalition argues that the “scientifically inaccurate” designation is defamatory and detrimental to this industry, which manufactures many essential products that are not harmful.
A spokesperson for the coalition said on Tuesday that the government should have waited for the conclusion of the challenge before moving on to the ban.
But according to Minister Guilbeault, the lawsuit had no effect on regulatory progress, “just as the lawsuit on carbon pricing did not prevent us from implementing it in Canada.”