Goodbye and Good Riddance!

Canada to ban six single-use plastic items next year.

This month, the federal government announced it would be adding plastics to the Toxic Substance List under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). This is a crucial step towards regulations that would reduce plastic production, use and disposal. It’s about time.

Canada to ban six single-use plastic items

Photo credit: Ruth Hartnup/Flickr Creative Commons

As part of the same announcement, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson released a draft management plan outlining the actions his ministry is considering to eliminate plastic waste. One of those actions is banning some single-use plastic items, specifically: grocery bags, straws, cutlery, six-pack rings, some takeout containers, and stir sticks.

The list itself is a good start. Canada has obviously been taking cues from the European Union (EU), which already moved to ban most of the same items last year. But Canada needs to do much more than ban plastic straws and spoons if it’s serious about a zero plastic waste future.

Much more is needed to tackle the plastic crisis

The truth is that our current, linear economy—where disposable products and packaging are the norm—is unsustainable. Instead, we need to transition to a circular economy, where reduction, reuse, and repair are prioritized and materials stay in the economy and out of landfills, incinerators and the environment.

Unfortunately, notwithstanding the bans, it looks like the government is going all-in on recycling as a silver bullet solution to plastic waste. But the reality is that recycling was a lie sold to us by the same industry committed to filling our cabinets, landfills and oceans with plastic —the petrochemical lobby.

Beyond the fact that many kinds of plastic are impractical or impossible to recycle, there are limits on the number of times plastic can be recycled before the polymers are too degraded and the material needs to be thrown away.

That’s why Canada needs to impose and enforce reduction and reuse targets, in addition to recycling and recycled content targets.

Next steps for Canada to tackle plastic pollution

Between now and December 9, the government is asking Canadians, businesses, and other stakeholders to provide feedback on their proposed management plan. We’ll be at the table, pushing hard for the regulations we need to eliminate plastic waste in Canada, including:

1. Finalizing the addition of plastics to the Toxic Substance List, under Schedule 1 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 by the end of 2020;

2. Banning at a minimum the six items proposed in the draft management plan by the end of 2021, and adding additional plastic items to the ban list in future years;

3. Working with provinces and territories to make the companies that produce plastic products and packaging financially and operationally responsible for plastic waste (Extended Producer Responsibility, EPR), and ensuring harmonization from coast-to-coast-to-coast; and

4. Establishing and enforcing high reduction, reuse, recycling, and recycled content targets to support Canada’s transition to a circular economy.

The plastic crisis has been growing for decades, and there is no immediate solution. It will take actions from all levels of governments, industry and society to overcome it. But this announcement is a step in the right direction.

- Ashley Wallis, Plastics Program Manager, Environmental Defence

Alberta’s Climate Plan: Game Changed

Ever have one of those days when all the assumptions you had about an issue turned upside down? Today (November 22^nd) is one of those days.

Addressing climate change in Canada has long been an intractable problem. This is because, despite the slowly transforming economies and declining carbon pollution emissions in Ontario, Quebec and B.C., Alberta’s emissions were growing at a breakneck pace and wiping out the reductions happening everywhere else. As a result Canadian governments were left with two options: deny or avoid the problem, or force change on Alberta.

Needless to say previous federal governments have consistently chosen door one.

But today’s climate change announcement in Alberta could change all that forever. The new plan will:

• Cap the carbon emissions from the tar sands at 100 MT and eventually force them to decline
• Close the fleet of coal electricity plants by 2030, drastically reducing both deadly local air pollution and also massive amounts of carbon emissions
• Increase the amount of renewable electricity on the grid to 30% by the same year
• See Alberta join with Ontario, Quebec and B.C. in putting a price on carbon pollution. Alberta’s price will start at $20/year in 2017, rise to $30 in 2018 and then rise annually. Money from the fee will be invested in programs to further reduce carbon emissions and help to ensure that price increases don’t harm citizens with limited income
• Significantly reduce waste methane emissions from oil and gas wells that are also important causes of climate change

This is a historic moment for Alberta and Canada. This is a commitment to tangible and aggressive climate action and we all should applaud Alberta for this huge change in direction.

Based on this announcement, Alberta’s carbon pollution should soon peak and start to decline. This is a fundamental pivot after years of uncontrolled carbon emissions growth and it removes one of the largest barriers to developing a meaningful Canadian climate strategy.

This announcement also sets Alberta on a path toward diversifying its economy and recognizing that a global transition away from fossil fuels is essential if the world as we know it is to survive. The money collected from a new price on carbon pollution can be invested in more energy efficient homes and businesses, new clean technology and renewable energy jobs.

With this move from Alberta, there is now nothing standing in the federal government’s way of developing a credible climate strategy and following Alberta’s lead by setting a limit on carbon pollution in Canada. Canada can now move ahead and fulfill its promise to cut carbon pollution in line with global science-based targets. 

Today’s announcement is very good news for Albertans and Canadians. It will help protect us all from dangerous climate change, set the scene for Canada to restore our good name, and places the country and the province in a solid position to harness the opportunities for growth in a clean economy.

This is the beginning of something new, folks. I am looking forward to a new Canada on the stage in Paris at the U.N. climate negotiations.

Guest blogger, Tim Gray, Executive Director of Environment Defence www.environmentaldefence.ca/