Canada took the next step in its effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030 last week when it announced a ban on certain single-use plastic items that its environmental protection and policy agency says are not often recycled. The ban includes check-out bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery and foodware items, according to a press release from Environment and Climate Change Canada. The action is based on Canada’s 2018 zero plastic waste strategy designed to “eliminate plastic waste as part of Canada’s larger move to a more circular and low carbon economy.” The goal of the strategy is to promote design of items for reuse instead of being discarded.
A plastics industry executive disputed the necessity of the toxic designation. “Plastic is an inert material. It’s not toxic,’ said Elena Mantagaris, vice president of the plastics division for the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, as reported by the National Post. The Canada-U.S collaborative Council of the Great Lakes Region supports EEEC’s zero plastic waste 2030 initiative, President and CEO Mark Fisher told Great Lakes Now. The plan includes new national targets for recycling content and increased responsibility for industry to pay for and manage recycling systems, he said.
Absent from the list of banned items are plastic bottles designed for bottled water. In Ontario, it’s estimated that 1 billion plastic water bottles annually are not recycled and end up in landfills, according to the watchdog group, the Council of Canadians. Veteran Canadian and United Nations water rights advocate Maude Barlow expressed outrage at the absence of single-use plastic water bottles from the list. Barlow said the world is drowning in plastic water bottles with a million sold every minute yet the Canadian government allows their continued consumption, which will amplify the plastics crisis many times over.
Source: Great Lakes Now
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