Canada will ban single-use plastics as early as 2021 in an attempt to reduce ocean waste, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced.
This great initiative is based on similar legislation that was accepted last year by the European Union and also by other nations.
Canada will start by launching targets for companies that sell or manufacture plastics and held them responsible for their plastic waste.
Now, less than 10% of plastic gets recycled in Canada. Mr. Trudeau said that this issue of plastic pollution is a “global challenge.”
In May, the UN announced that 180 countries agreed to reduce the amount of plastic that gets thrown in the world’s oceans where it is destructive and detrimental for the fish, whales, sea turtles, and other wildlife because they get stuck in the plastic and die.
About 3m tonnes of plastic waste is being thrown away each year in Canada. Canada has yet to decide which single-use plastics will be banned but it is supposed that it would target plastic bags, plates, straws, cutlery, and stir sticks.
“As parents we’re at a point when we take our kids to the beach and we have to search out a patch of sand that isn’t littered with straws, Styrofoam or bottles,” Mr Trudeau said. “That’s a problem, one that we have to do something about.”
In October 2018, the EU voted for a total ban of single-use plastic across the union to stop the pollution of the waters. They hope it will go fully into law by 2021.
Canadian legislators have also passed a bill that will ban the captivity, wild capture, and breeding of dolphins, porpoises, and whales in the country.
“No tank is large enough or deep enough” for whales or dolphins to be able to live naturally in captivity, said Melissa Matlow with World Animal Protection Canada.
