Ottawa moves to ban single-use plastics as part of waste-reduction efforts
Published June 9, 2019
Canada is taking steps to ban a range of everyday plastics as part of a sweeping strategy to push provinces and manufacturers to overhaul recycling and waste-reduction efforts.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government on Monday will lay out plans to regulate plastic waste as part of a national blueprint to reduce the amount of hard-to-recycle consumer packaging that has swamped city waste programs and is polluting Canada’s rivers and lakes.
A federal official to whom The Globe and Mail granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said Ottawa will begin a scientific evaluation to designate plastic waste as a toxic substance under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), the first step to imposing bans on disposable single-use items and introducing national recycling standards and targets.
The approach is a response to increasing anxiety about plastic pollution and is also an acknowledgment that household recycling has not kept pace with the rapid spread of cheap consumer packaging discarded after a single use: Only 9 per cent of plastics are recycled in Canada.
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-ottawa-moves-to-ban-single-use-plastics-as-part-of-waste-reduction/