Plastic may now be considered toxic under Canada’s environmental law, but the hard work of reducing plastic use and improving recycling still lies ahead.

This week’s decision to list plastic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act’s toxic substances list opens the door to bans and other rules that the federal government says will eliminate plastic waste by 2040.

What needs to happen next?

“We’d like to see the draft regulations to ban the single-use plastics the government has signalled they’re planning to ban,” said Wirsig.

Last October, the government announced plans to ban six single-use items — plastic shopping bags, stir sticks, six-pack rings, plastic cutlery, straws and takeout containers made from hard-to-recycle plastics — and published a proposed framework to ban more problematic items in the future.
Wallis said ideally, the government would finalize the single-use plastic ban by the end of the year and expand the list to include other plastic items commonly found in the environment, like single-use coffee cups and lids, cigarette filters and all forms of polystyrene (Styrofoam).

Read the full story from Canada’s National Observer