What does Canada’s ban on the manufacture and import of six types of single-use plastics mean?
Dr. Peter Ross was on CBC’s Podcast, About That.
Plastics are everywhere. Even when we try to escape from our plastic-crazy world, we run into it on our favourite beach on our rugged coast, in the form of ropes, nets, bags, bottles, or straws. Much appears as mystery bits, degraded from a larger item lost years or even decades ago.
Some see plastic litter as a benign blight, but more and more evidence is accumulating that the plastic pollution problem is a global conservation threat. Detected in air, snow, water, soils and sediments. Found in seawater from the North Pole, and in sediments at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. Retrieved from zooplankton, shellfish, fish, seabirds, and marine mammals around the world. Killing endangered sea turtles and albatross. Consumed by people in small quantities.
I wish that beach cleanups and recycling would solve this problem, but they are insufficient to close the loop on the plastic economy and keep plastics out of the environment.
Thankfully, the Government of Canada has stepped up to stop this scourge from getting worse. Canada banned the import and manufacture of single use plastic checkout bags, cutlery, and foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics, stir sticks, and straws. Ring carriers will be banned in June 2023.
“As of December 20, 2022, the manufacture and import for sale in Canada of checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, stir sticks and straws (i.e., straight straws), as defined in the Regulations, will be prohibited.”
– Government of Canada Single Use Plastics Prohibition
I spoke with Andrew Chang on CBC’s podcast, About That. We discussed the ins and outs of our plastic world, its impact on the environment, and what this Government ban means to Canadians.
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