Trudeau's ban on single-use plastics begins Tuesday

As of December 20, 2022, Canada's ban on the manufacture and import of certain plastic items, including straws and grocery bags, has taken effect.

Beginning Tuesday, the list of plastic items that companies will no longer be allowed to produce or bring into the country will include checkout bags, cutlery, some foodservice ware, stir sticks, and straws.



It will still be legal to sell these items until December 2023, so as "to provide businesses in Canada with enough time to transition and to deplete their existing stocks," according to the government's website.

The manufacture and import ban will extend to ring carries, commonly used to carry canned drinks, in June 2023, with the sale of these items prohibited until June 2024.

Also in the crosshairs are flexible straws packaged with drink containers like juiceboxes, the sale of which will be prohibited in June 2024.

Finally, at the end of 2025, the export of these items will also be prohibited, which will make "Canada the first among peer jurisdictions to do so internationally," according to the government.

Many Canadians across the country will be used to some of these regulations, as many local governments have made their own laws regarding plastic items, most commonly grocery store bags. The Federal government has also been urging Canadians since July 2022 to stop using plastic cutlery, and to bring their own containers when ordering takeout.

Trudeau promised in 2019 that the plastic ban would take effect in 2021, but later determined that this deadline would be unrealistic due to several factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

The slated goal of these plastic bans is to eliminate more than 1.3 million tonnes of hard-to-recycle plastic waste and the equivalent of more than one million garbage bags of plastic pollution.