Canada plans to ban single-use plastics as early as 2021, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced at the Gault Nature Reserve in Mont St-Hilaire, south of Montreal.
Though details on how the ban will be carried out are not yet precise, Trudeau said the government plans to explore which items need to be banned and to conduct research to determine the best way forward.
Less than 10 percent of the plastic used in Canada gets recycled, and Canadians throw away more than 3 million tonnes of plastic waste every year. What is more, approximately one-third of plastics are used for single-use or short-lived products, according to the government.
Single-use plastic products include items such as straws, plastic bags, cutlery, water bottles, and take-out food containers — they all wreak havoc on marine life when they make their way into the oceans.
Up to 15 billion plastic bags are used in Canada each year and 57 million straws are used daily.
Canadians are tired of seeing our beaches, parks, streets, and shorelines littered with plastic waste. Learn more about the action we’re taking to ban harmful single-use plastics: https://t.co/GZBt0K10Nt #BeatPlasticPollution pic.twitter.com/eZ0yT8ckY5
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) June 10, 2019
One million birds and more than 100,000 sea mammals get hurt or die when they mistake plastic for food or become entangled.
Trudeau announced that the government would work with provinces and territories to come up with suitable standards and goals for companies which manufacture plastic products or sell products with plastic packaging.
Banning single-use plastics is part of an international trend to reduce plastic waste: Rwanda, Kenya, and Morocco have all banned plastic bags, Taiwan has banned many single-use plastics, and France banned plastic cups, plates, and cutlery back in 2016.
According to the government, new investments and solutions could reduce 1.8 million tonnes of carbon pollution.
At the G7 Summit in Canada, on June 2018, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, and the European Union signed on to the Ocean Plastics charter, that committed them to finding ways to tackle marine plastics litter.
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