B.C. announces details of single-use plastics ban

The B.C. government says several single-use plastic items will be phased out by December as part of new rules aimed at tackling plastic pollution.

On Friday, provincial Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy George Heyman announced details of the new rules, which have been in the works since an intentions paper on the issue was published last April.

Starting in December, single-use items such as plastic shopping bags, disposable food service accessories, oxo-degradable plastics and food service packaging made of polystyrene foam, PVC, PVDC, compostable or biodegradable plastics will no longer be allowed to be sold in B.C.

"Focusing on hard-to-recycle single-use and plastic items will help move B.C. to a circular economy where waste and pollution are eliminated, products and materials are kept in the economy through re-use," said Heyman from a news conference held at the Vancouver company ShareWares.

The company runs a platform where reusable packaging and containers are filled, rented, returned, sanitized, and redistributed. Itreceived over $300,000 in funding from the province in April to expand its services.

'Get jazzed'

"For humans to live sustainably on this planet, we need to ditch the throw-away lifestyle and get excited and jazzed about reuse and the circular economy," said Cody Irwin, founder and CEO of ShareWares.

Over their life cycle, reusable products generally produce fewer emissions, consume less water, and decrease waste, litter and pollution compared to disposable alternatives.

The items under the new regulations, which arepart of the government's broader CleanBC PlasticsAction Plan,are often difficult to collect and recycle and typically end up in landfills or as litter.

Sarah Kirby-Yung, a Vancouver city councillor and chair of the Metro Vancouver Zero Waste Committee, applauded the new rules saying items of the soon-to-be phased-out materials are choking landfills across the region.

"Metro Vancouver actually disposed of 1.3 billion single-use items in 2022," she said. "That's over 400 items per person or more than one for every single day of the year."

The six-month timeline is to allow public education campaigns over the new regulations and for businesses to use up existing inventory.

The province will have rules in place for certain sectors, such as health care, to use some of the items being phased outupon request. Businesses will be expected to use alternatives and will be able to charge fees to customers for the replacement alternative.

"We have consulted, and people believe that this is not only doable, but it's important to do it," said Heyman. "I think business owners largely already know this.We've seen a number of them already make shifts."

The new provincial regulations will be in place on Dec. 20, 2023, and dovetail with federal rules.

In December 2022, Ottawa began banning the manufacture and import of six plastic items: plastic checkout bags, drinking straws, cutlery, stir sticks, ring carriers and food-service ware made from plastics.

The sale of the items in Canada will also be banned as of Dec. 20, 2023.

Many municipalities have already developed their own rules over the use and distribution of single-use plastics, such as banning plastic bags in favour of reusable bags or fee schemes for replacements.

"I think we can all agree that reducing these single-use items is one simple but very significant way to take climate action," said Kirby-Yung.

• Paper bags cost at least 25c, a reusable bag $2 in Vancouver

The province said since it launched its CleanBC Action Plan in 2019, 21 municipalities have established bylaws to limit single-use plastics in their communities.