Following a ban on plastic bags at supermarkets and liquor stores in late 2022, the federal government is gearing up to
ban single-use plastics used in food packaging.
“Plastics play an important role in the everyday lives of Canadians. However, a significant amount of plastic food packaging is used only once and then ends up in landfills as waste, or in the environment as pollution," Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said in a statement on Aug. 1.
“By getting rid of problematic plastic food packaging, replacing single-use packaging with reuse-refill systems, and ensuring that plastics, if needed, are designed to be safely reused, recycled, or composted, we can all help move Canada toward zero plastic waste.”
The release said the government is proposing to develop a Pollution Prevention Planning Notice (P2 Notice) for plastic packaging that “comes into direct contact with food.” Under the P2 Notice, Canada’s largest grocery retailers will be required to prepare a plan to meet targets to “reduce, reuse, and redesign” primary food plastic packaging. This includes items such as produce bags, juice boxes, yogurt containers, and meat trays, as stated.
Canadians threw away 4.4 million tonnes of plastic waste in 2019, recycling only nine percent of it, according to the release. An April 18
audit report of large grocery stores across Canada titled “Left Holding the Bag” found that
64 percent of products in the grocery sections of produce, baby food, pet food, and soup were packaged in plastic intended for single use.
Zero Plastic Waste by 2030
In late 2022, Canada banned the manufacturing and importation of single-use plastics as part of its attempt to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030. The ban
includes checkout bags, cutlery, food service ware, ring carriers, stir sticks, and straws.
The sale of these plastic items will be prohibited as of December 2023 to allow Canadian businesses “enough time to transition and to deplete their existing stocks.” Canada also plans to prohibit the export of plastics in the same categories by the end of 2025.
The government predicts that the ban on single-use plastics will eliminate over 1.3 million tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic waste and more than 22,000 tonnes of plastic
pollution over the next decade.In March, the Saskatchewan and Alberta governments intervened in the Responsible Plastic Use Coalition’s court challenge of the government’s decision to ban single-use plastics. The coalition is a group of plastic manufacturers that includes Dow Chemicals Canada, Imperial Oil, and Nova Chemicals. Saskatchewan argued that Ottawa’s jurisdiction over environmental protection is limited to established toxic substances like lead, mercury, and arsenic.
In July, Alberta’s Minister of the Environment and Protected Areas Rebecca Schultz warned in a letter that the federal government’s plastics ban would “punish innovative solutions, and hinder locally driven progress,” adding that Ottawa was failing to focus its efforts on the “real need to manage plastic waste appropriately.”
According to Prof. Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, the banning of plastics could further drive up food prices in Canada. A model by the university’s food analytics lab has predicted that wholesale food prices in Canada will rise by
34 percent on average in all food categories by 2025.
“It doesn’t matter what alternatives you use, plastics were useful because they are the cheapest of all options,”
he said. “And so when you’re replacing plastics, it will actually cost more to keep our food safe and fresh.”
