Plastic Bags, Straws Will Be Banned Across Canada In 2021: Minister

Jonathan Hayward/THE CANADIAN PRESS Plastics gathered for recycling at a depot in Vancouver on June, 10, 2019. OTTAWA — A national ban on many single-use plastics is on track for next year, Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson says, after a government report concluded Thursday that there is more than enough evidence proving plastic pollution is harmful. “We will be moving towards a ban on harmful single-use plastics and we will be doing that in 2021,” said Wilkinson. The federal Liberals promised last June they’d seek to ban plastic versions of number of products such as straws, take-out containers and grocery bags. The ban would happen under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, which requires a scientific assessment of the problem first. A draft version of that assessment was released Thursday. It will be open to public comment until April 1. The report says that in 2016, 29,000 tonnes of plastic garbage, the equivalent of about 2.3 billion single-use plastic water bottles, ended up as litter in Canada — on beaches, in parks, in lakes, and even, says the report, in the air. Watch: These plastic items likely to be banned in Canada. Story continues below. Some of the litter is easily […]

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