Imagine this: we can eliminate the equivalent of more than a million garbage bags full of rubbish every year. Canada is trying to do just that, as the northern country has just imposed a world-leading ban on harmful disposable plastics. The ban will lead to the estimated elimination of more than 1.3 million tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic waste and more than 22,000 tonnes of plastic pollution.
The US contributes more to the polluting flood than any other nation, generating approximately 287 pounds of plastic per person annually.
The Government of Canada is taking the lead among its international counterparts in banning harmful plastics and keeping them out of the environment. The June 20 announcement set out the final regulations to ban disposable plastic, including:
- pay branches
- cutlery
- foodware made from or containing problematic plastics that are difficult to recycle
- ring carriers
- stir sticks
- most straws
Three target year milestones were presented:
- The production of plastic will effectively end December 2022.
- The sale of plastics will be banned from December 2023 (the 18 months in between should allow enough time for businesses to switch and deplete their existing stock).
- The export of plastics in the 6 categories will be banned by the end of 2025.
The action is part of a larger agenda to demonstrate leadership that will protect biodiversity, promote a healthy environment at home and around the world, and help meet the commitments of the Ocean Plastics Charter and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). to come.
Quick facts about harmful plastics
In Canada, up to 15 billion plastic pay bags are used each year and about 16 million straws are used daily. Disposable plastic like this makes up most of the plastic debris found on coastlines across Canada.
Sales of flexible disposable plastic straws will be restricted from December 2023. Exceptions to the ban on straws allow single-use flexible plastic straws to remain available to people in Canada who need them for medical or accessibility reasons. This includes for use at home, in social environments or in healthcare settings, such as hospitals and long-term care facilities. All other types of disposable plastic straws will be banned.
Prohibition on the manufacture and import of ring carriers and flexible straws packed with beverage containers (eg juice boxes) will come into effect in June 2023, and the ban on the sale of these items will come into force in June 2024. timelines recognize the complexity associated with reprocessing manufacturing lines for these products.
The government has also published two guidelines: one to help businesses comply with the regulations, and another to help businesses and people in Canada choose more sustainable alternatives to disposable plastic.
Published on October 7, 2020, the report entitled Science Assessment of Plastic Pollution has helped inform Canada’s policy development and actions and guide research on plastic pollution in Canada.
A draft of the regulations was published in the Canadian NewspaperPart I, for a comment period of 70 days on 25 December 2021. The feedback received was taken into account in the development of the final regulations.
Moving to a more circular economy for plastics could reduce carbon emissions by 1.8 megatons a year, generate billions of dollars in revenue and create about 42,000 jobs by 2030.
In the early summer, the Government of Canada will begin consulting on approaches to a federal public plastics registry and the development of labeling rules that will prevent the use of the hunting arrow symbol on plastic items unless at least 80% of recycling facilities in Canada accept them, and they have reliable end markets.
The US and harmful plastics
Piece-of-work efforts have been instituted by some states, with New York implementing a one-time ban on plastic bags in 2020. Earlier this month, a bill was introduced in California to reduce plastic production for disposable products such as shampoo bottles and food casings by 25% from next decade.
The US is the world’s leading contributor to plastic waste and needs a national strategy to combat the issue, according to a report commissioned by Congress. In it, the authors remind us that the generation of plastic waste is directly related to the amount of plastic produced and used.
The harmful plastic pollution is a specific example of pollution devastation today. The visibility of global marine plastic waste, for example, coupled with increasing documentation of its ubiquity, devastating impact on marine health and marine wildlife, and transportation through the food web, has brought widespread public awareness. The report outlines how, in theory, managed solid waste in the US should not contribute to marine plastic waste, say the authors, because it is contained through treatment and / or conversion into other products (recycling, composting, incineration) or contained in a manipulated landfill environment.
In practice, plastic waste still “leaks” from managed waste systems when it blows out of rubbish bins, intentionally or unintentionally through actions such as illegal dumping and littering, or where it is unregulated. Recycling presents many challenges, including incompatibilities of different types of plastics and large differences in processing requirements.
On World Ocean Day, 8 June 2022, Home Secretary Deb Haaland issued Secretary Order 3407, which aims to reduce the acquisition, sale and distribution of single-use plastic products and packaging with the aim of phasing out single-use plastic products to department -managed countries by 2032. The order is part of the implementation of President Biden’s executive order 14057, which calls on federal agencies to minimize waste and support markets for recycled products. These include plastic and polystyrene food and beverage containers, bottles, straws and cups.
Final Thoughts
A resolution adopted by the United Nations in March sets out an ambitious plan for the development of a legally binding treaty to reduce plastic waste. The global treaty to end plastic pollution could lead to restrictions on plastic production or impose rules to make plastic easier and less toxic to reuse.
“The high and rapidly rising levels of plastic pollution represent a serious environmental problem on a global scale,” the UN resolution noted, recognizing the urgent need to strengthen global coordination, cooperation and governance to take immediate steps in the direction of the long-term elimination of plastic pollution. ”
However, the treaty proposals are preliminary and have received feedback from the oil and petrochemical industries.
The US orders are a starting point, but it is going to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving the US harmful plastic problem. Start locally. Contact your favorite liquor store and request refillable containers. Call out corporatocracies that use dehydration to hide their plastic manufacturing responsibilities. Be a plague to your state legislators and ask them to hold plastic pollution producers accountable.
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