Canada bans disposable plastic a first step in solving a primary problem

Canada takes an important step in the fight against plastic pollution. The great north-american nation, by 2021, announced a ban on single-use plastics like straws, cotton swabs, and Styrofoam material. In addition to banning single-use plastic items, the federal government wants companies that manufacture plastic products to take responsibility for recycling their plastic waste. 

The latest announcement by Canada is an important step forward for the mobilization of large countries towards resolution and is part of a global movement to address the worldwide plastic pollution problem. 

Indeed, while on the one hand Canada will be able to do so as a forerunner, first among the G7 powers, towards a new environmentalist push, on the other hand it still shows the slowness with which the great nations want to face the problem, still considered secondary. As far as Canada, Italy, Germany, France, United Kingdom and the European Union signed on to the “Ocean Plastic Charter" at the G7 in 2017, in Charlevoix, pledging to find ways to curb plastic pollution. A First steps towards a circular economy. 

Strategies to address plastic pollution (like also a better management of plastic waste) can help to fight climate change and biodiversity loss. Decrease the presence of plastic in the environment will reduce biodiversity loss of the more than 2.000 species that have ingested plastic, become entangled in it or had their habitats smothered by it. 

Reducing production of new plastics will reduce plastic pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Plastic derived from petroleum, and its incineration contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions from plastics could reach 15% of the global carbon budget by 2050 if current plastic production trends continue. In Europe, plastic production and the incineration of plastic waste emits an estimated 400 million tonnes of CO2 for year. 

The actions by governments, corporations and individuals to mitigate and manage plastic pollution should be applauded, rather than framed as a distraction. Plastic may be convenient, but there is nothing convenient about plastic pollution.