By Jennifer Chang.     Photo：mali maeder

The federal government of Canada is expected to ban the manufacture and import of harmful single-use plastics by the end of 2022 in an effort to combat environmental pollution and climate change. This also means that plastic bags, plastic cutlery and straws, which are commonly used in most stores, are also on the list of banned items. Canada is now moving toward restrictions on single-use plastics in the European Union, Chile and Mexico, hoping that a national ban on single-use plastics will force companies and markets to offer new alternatives to plastic products.  At the same time, in order to provide sufficient time for domestic enterprises to phase out single-use plastic products and to take into account the problems of inventory cleanup, the ban on the sale of plastic products will be extended until the end of 2023. In addition, the export of six types of plastic products, including plastic shopping bags, plastic tableware, plastic stirrers and straws, is expected to be banned after 2025. The ban will effectively reduce more than 1.3 million metric tons of plastic waste and reduce plastic pollution by more than 22,000 metric tons over the next 10 years.

On June 22, 2022, Canada released SOR/2022-138, Single-Use Plastic Ban Regulations, which prohibits the manufacture, import and sale of seven types of single-use plastic products in Canada, and with some special exceptions, the ban on the manufacture and import of these single-use plastics will come into force in December 2022! Product categories involved 1.Disposable plastic checkout bags  2.Disposable plastic cutlery  3.Disposable plastic flexible straw  4.Disposable plastic foodservice ware 5. Disposable plastic ring carrier 6. Disposable plastic stirring stick 7. Disposable plastic straw 。Banning the use of plastic bags and other products is a very important matter. Because a plastic product alone can have a significant impact on our environment and pose a threat to the survival of wildlife. Canada's goal is to have "zero plastic in landfills, beaches, rivers, wetlands and forests" by 2030, so that plastic disappears from nature.

European and American countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada often ship large amounts of domestic plastic waste to the Philippines, India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Thailand, causing not only land pollution in other countries, but also increasing carbon emissions and energy consumption during the transportation of waste. According to the Washington Post, although the natural ecology has recovered under the impact of the epidemic and the reduction of human activities, some environmentalists believe that the plastic crisis is increasing rather than decreasing in many countries around the world. The consumption and use of medical masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), for example, has increased the amount of plastic waste to about 8 million metric tons during the epidemic, and most of the waste ends up in the sea. In addition to obviously causing a greater burden on the environment, this will also have an irreversible impact on the marine ecology.

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