When used for an average of 20 minutes, a plastic bag can leave its mark on our environment for up to 1000 years. It is estimated that Canadians throw away three million tons of plastic per year. That’s the equivalent of 570 plastic-filled garbage bags every minute, every day.
To help reduce plastic consumption, Canada’s Federal Minister of the Environment announced on June 20, 2022, regulations to eliminate 1.3 million tons of hard-to-recycle plastic products from landfills and more than 22,000 tons of plastic pollution from entering our environment over the next 10 years.
The regulation covers six categories of single-use plastic products (SUDs), including single-use bags, straws and utensils. The Minister is not ruling out the possibility of adding other products. The ban on these products will be effective as of December 2023.
The International Plastic Bag Free Day organized by GAIA, Zero Waste Europe and Fundació Prevenció Residus i Consum, wants to accentuate the awareness of the population and present the dangers of plastic in marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
The goal is to encourage individuals and organizations to develop alternatives to single-use plastic bags and other items. Suggestions for reducing our consumption of plastic bags include:
- Use reusable cloth bags
- Limit the purchase of over-packaged foods
- Buy more of certain foods to reduce packaging
- Store in bulk for dry foods and use glass containers