The ban will include straws, grocery bags, cutlery, stir sticks, takeout containers and plastic rings. The Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault says Canada will ban companies from importing or making plastic bags and styrofoam containers by the end of this year. They will then ban the sale of the items by the end of next year and their export by the end of 2025.
Guilbeault will be publishing the final regulations to enact the ban today. There will be limited exceptions for straws to accommodate people with disabilities. Last year, the federal government listed plastics as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. This helped kickstart the way for regulations to ban some of the products.
Plastic waste has been a growing issue around the globe and in 2019 almost 3.3 million tonnes of plastic were thrown out. It is estimated that 10 per cent of that waste is recycled plastic. It is estimated that 29,000 tonnes ended up as plastic pollution, littering parks, forests, waterways and shorelines.
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