The Trudeau government says it will ban single-use plastics as early as 2021.
Some of the single-use plastics that will be banned include plastic straws, cotton swabs, drink stirrers, plates, cutlery, and balloon sticks.
A larger strategy to tackle the plastic pollution problem will be announced by the government.
It is expected that the list of banned plastics will look a lot like that of the EU, voted in March to ban products made of oxo-degradable plastics that don’t fully decompose.
Fast-food containers and cups made of expanded polystyrene, which is similar to Styrofoam, will be banned as well.
At last year’s G-7 meeting in Quebec, Prime Minister Trudeau announced the Canada-led Ocean Plastics Charter which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, The U.K, and the European Union immediately signed on to.
A report completed earlier this found that in 2016, 87 percent of plastic waste ended up in landfills with only nine percent being recycled in Canada.
According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadians throw away more than 34 million plastic bags daily. This is a global issue because the bags end up in landfills and can take 1,000 years to decompose. They also end up in the oceans, where dead whales have washed ashore with plastic bags found in their stomachs.
Prime Minister Trudeau and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna will announce the new plastic strategy in two separate locations.
