National ban on single-use plastic items takes effect

The national ban on the manufacture and importation of some plastic items has taken effect this morning.

As of Tuesday, Dec. 20, companies can no longer produce plastic checkout bags, cutlery, stir sticks, straws and takeout containers or import them into Canada.

And in a year from now, regulation will be in place to also make it illegal to sell some plastic items.

The federal government estimates that getting rid of the single-use plastics will eliminate a million garbage bags’ worth of pollution.

The single-use items the government is starting with meet two criteria: they are commonly found polluting nature, and they can be replaced by readily available alternatives that already exist.

READ MORE: Canada publishes final regulations to prohibit single-use plastics

The country’s low recycling rates are blamed in part on the fact that a wide variety of plastics are used, which is difficult for recycling facilities to handle.

The manufacturing and importing of six-pack plastic rings for drink containers will be banned in June 2023, with their sale completely coming to an end a year after that.

Canada is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. World Bank data on municipal solid waste shows that, on average, every Canadian throws out 706 kilograms of garbage each year.

Among G7 countries, that is higher than everywhere but the United States, which discards 812 kilograms per person each year.

In Canada, about 29,000 tonnes of plastic garbage, mainly packaging, ends up in the environment each year.