Canada will prohibit firms from making and importing some single-use plastics, by the end of the year.
Banned items include plastic shopping bags, takeout containers and six-pack rings for holding cans and bottles together.
The federal government will later ban the sale of those items in 2023, followed by an export ban in 2025. This one-year gap is to allow businesses time to transition.
The new regulation will eliminate approximately 1.3 million tonnes of plastic waste over the next ten years, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
However, the new regulation does not address Canada's growing problem with plastic fishing nets, with over 640,000 tons worth of fishing nets discarded every year.
"It's a drop in the bucket. Until the government gets serious about overall reductions of plastic production, we're not going to see the impact we need to see in the environment or in our waste streams."
- Sarah King, head of Greenpeace Canada's oceans and plastics campaign
