When Ocean Wise volunteers picked up litter on Canada’s shorelines last year, they found the usual top items, including cigarette butts, plastic and styrofoam pieces. But they also found 32 per cent fewer straws and 25 per cent fewer plastic bags compared to the previous year.

The results are promising, said Kaitlyn Harris, manager of Ocean Wise’s shoreline cleanup.

“This means that the federal plastic ban is working,” she said. “This is having an actual impact on the environment, which ultimately means less [plastic] is ending up in our oceans, affecting habitats and ecosystems.”

The federal government labeled plastic manufactured items as toxic in 2021, paving the way for a national single-use plastic ban on some items in 2022, including plastic straws, bags and utensils. While the regulations are still in place today, it’s been a confusing back and forth.

Industry groups quickly challenged the “toxic” label that underpins the regulations, and the Supreme Court sided with them, deeming it unconstitutional. But it still upheld the regulations until a decision came from an appeal, which is still pending.

Some provinces already had their own provincial bans on items such as plastic bags, and fewer of those items were found on their shores. The highest number of plastic bags, straws and utensils per capita were found in Ontario, which has no plastic bans.

Charlotte Lepage, CBC News: What on Earth?, June 5, 2025.

Read the original issue at CBC.ca.