Last Monday, the Canadian government published final regulations banning the manufacture and import of certain single-use plastics by the end of 2022 (Reuters). The ban will apply to six types of single-use plastics: checkout bags, cutlery, straws, stir sticks, ring carriers, and foodservice ware made from or containing problematic plastics that are hard to recycle (Government of Canada). The regulations also ban the sale and export of these items by the end of 2023 and 2025, respectively.

Prime Minster Justin Trudeau first announced plans in 2019 to phase out the production and use of hard-to-recycle plastics by 2021, but those plans were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The government has since listed plastics as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, enabling their prohibition (AP).

Notably, the regulations do not include a ban on plastic packaging from consumer goods, which is currently the leading source of plastic waste worldwide, and they still allow retailers to sell single-use plastic flexible straws if they are packed alongside beverage containers and the packaging was done off-site (Guardian).

According to research published by Environment and Climate Change Canada, 3.3 million tons of plastic was thrown out in 2019, and less than one-tenth of it was recycled (AP). The government estimates that the ban will eliminate more than 1.3 million tons of hard-to-recycle plastic waste and more than 22,000 tons of plastic pollution over the next decade (Government of Canada).