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Ban of Single-Use Plastics

The Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations, published on June 22, 2022, will ban the manufacture, import, and sale of SUPs. However, manufacture and import for the purposes of export will be exempt from the regulation.  In this case, regulated parties must keep records for a period of five years from the date the records were created.

6 Categories of Prohibited SUPs

·       Checkout bags

·       Cutlery

·       Foodservice ware

·       Ring carriers

·       Stir sticks

·       Straws

Environmental Harm Caused by SUPs

In modern society, plastic items have become abundant and universally available. SUPs are designed only for one use and will be discarded once it has fulfilled its use. As a result, microplastic pollution into environmental ecosystems have caused substantial ecological and physical harm to wildlife and their habitat integrity.

Plastic bags, for example, can take several hundred years to biodegrade and in the open ocean, can injure or kill marine animals that either consume it or drown by entanglement and strangulation. Plastic bags are also composed of crude oil which contaminate the water by emitting a thin layer of oil over the surface. This prevents oxygen from reaching the plants and animals that inhabit aquatic ecosystems, restricting the process of photosynthesis.

Every year, the Canadian population generates large amounts of plastic waste which eventually enters and pollutes the environment. The six categories of SUPs alone represent about 5% of the total plastic waste produced in Canada in 2019, or an estimated 160,000 tonnes sold.

Benefits and Costs

Benefits

·       Remove potential harm to wildlife and improve habitat quality

·       Reduce marine pollution and litter clean up cost

Costs

·       Economic costs (substitution, secondary-use, waste management costs)

·       Record keeping administrative costs

Businesses Manufacturing SUPs

Under the proposed prohibition of SUPs, businesses will face an inevitable decrease in domestic demand for these goods. Manufacturers, currently producing SUPs, have two options. Either decide to maintain their current production procedure for export purposes or decide to alter their production line to manufacture plastic items not prohibited under the proposed Regulations.

Businesses Importing SUPs

The prohibition of the six categories of SUPs would have minimal impact on importers. Theses businesses could switch to importing single-use substitutes that comply with the proposed Regulations, such as reusable and recyclable items.

Businesses Manufacturing SUP Substitutes

The new demand for paper substitutes could be met by domestic manufacturing firms with idled mills and those in the declining graphic paper market. Although these firms would be required to make a small capital expenditure. A secondary option would be to meet additional demands through imports from the United States.

Coming into Force

• Checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, stir sticks, straws
  • Manufacture/Import – December 20, 2022
  • Sale – December 20, 2023
  • Export – December 20, 2025
• Ring carriers
  • Manufacture/Import – June 20, 2023
  • Sale – June 20, 2024
  • Export – December 20, 2025
• Straws packaged with a beverage container
  • Sale – June 20, 2024
  • Export – December 20, 2025

Alternative Substitutes

For more information, please contact [email protected] or call 1-905-608-2893