Woman wearing a plastic face shield to protect her from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) while carrying her groceries in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on April 24, 2020. Grocery shopping has become a traumatic experience for many Canadians who worry about contracting the virus. (Photo by Creative Touch Imaging Ltd./NurPhoto)
The government of Canada has promised that they will be placing a ban on single-use plastic materials such as bags and straws in the year 2021.
This is part of the country’s plan to become a green country.
Plastic pollutes the rivers, lakes, oceans, and harms wildlife.
It is reported that residents in Canada throw away 3 million tons of plastic waste on a yearly basis and out of that 3 million tons, only 9 percent of that is recycled.
The rest 91 percent end up in landfills.
It has been reported that around 29,000 tons of plastic waste finds its ways into the natural environment.
October 7, 2020, Jonathan Wilkinson, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada, said that the government wants the country to become a country that has zero percent plastic waste by the year 2030.
Minister Wilkinson said in a news conference:
Plastic pollution threatens our natural environment. It fills our rivers or lakes, and most particularly our oceans, choking the wildlife that lives there. Canadians see the impact that pollution has from coast to coast to coast.
The plan of the government will help in protecting wildlife, waters, create more jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the announcement, it was announced that harmful single-use plastic items will become banned in 2021.
Here are 6 things that the government of Canada will be banned next year:
- Plastic checkout bags
- Plastic straws
- Plastic six-pack rings
- Plastic coffee stir sticks
- Plastic cutlery
- Plasticware that could not be recycled
A paper that is called as Proposed Integrated Management Approach to Plastic Products to Prevent Waste and Pollution talked about improvements, recovery, and how to recycle plastic in the country.
The list of items that will be banned was listed in the same proposed paper.
The plan will also help out the economy by creating more jobs.
Another thing that is being proposed in Canada is to create recycled content requirements for the packaging and products in the country.