The Trudeau government has said it will ban single-use plastics by 2021. To help stop our massive plastic waste and pollution problem before it starts, we need a ban that covers all the problematic and unnecessary plastics in our lives.
Plastic bags, bottles, cups, straws, stir sticks, wrappers, utensils are part of a long list of throwaway plastics that regularly pollute the environment in Canada and around the world.
Almost all plastics are made from fossil fuels. They pollute at every stage of their lifecycle and actively contribute to the climate crisis. They represent a danger to the health of wildlife, ecosystems and ourselves.
With a broken recycling system and a nasty habit of exporting and offloading our trash problems on countries in the Global South, we must immediately stop producing problematic and unnecessary plastics in the first place.
We need to move towards a just and zero waste future and stop relying on polluting fossil-fuel derived products that leave us in the past.
That means we need to ban all non-essential plastics, starting with the ones that regularly pollute, that end up as trash and that already have reusable alternatives.
We also must require corporations to take full responsibility for the lifecycle of their products and waste, and invest in innovative delivery systems that focus on reuse and refill systems. The Reuse Revolution is already happening. We need to ramp it up to create the new, circular economy that respects nature’s limits.
The federal government is creating regulations that will inform the ban on problematic single-use plastics. Ask them for a comprehensive ban list.
Your gift contributes to our work to protect the planet and tackle plastic pollution at the source.
The federal government is creating regulations that will inform the ban on problematic single-use plastics. Ask them for a comprehensive ban list.
Your gift contributes to our work to protect the planet and tackle plastic pollution at the source.
