Every year, Canadians throw away 3 million tons of plastic waste and only around 9 percent of it gets recycled. This means that the vast majority of plastics that Canadians are putting into their blue bins end up in the landfill, and some of it even ends up in our environment such as on beaches.
Recently, the Federal Government announced that they were continuing to move forward with the ban on single use plastics. These are things like straws, cutlery, and take-out containers.
Kate Young, MP for London West, said that they had heard from people that “we have to keep pushing for a greener economy” and that we could not the government did not want this to lapse because of the coronavirus pandemic. This is because “it’s still a number one issue facing Canadians.”
But this ban on single use plastics will come with a couple limitations as the government acknowledges that not everyone can live without single use plastics. Young said that they are not banning essential use of plastics like those used by people with disabilities since they “know people with disabilities can use plastics and need plastics to get through their lives.”
Christine Wardle is the Sustainability Consultant at Fanshawe College and she thinks that banning the use of single use plastics is necessary. She said that “this plastic ban is a step in the right direction” and that “simply not giving them the option” will help to reduce the amount of plastic being discarded.
Wardle thinks that there is still more that the government can do to push forward to building a greener society but for now this a right step even during a pandemic.
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