Why Big Plastic wants you to worry Trudeau is taking over your recycling bin
Packaging for food and other goods accounts for nearly half of the plastic waste Canadians generate each year, according to a study commissioned by Environment and Climate Change Canada. Photo by Justin Bautista/Unsplash
By Marc Fawcett-Atkinson
The survey, which was structured as statements followed by a yes or no question, asked thousands of Canadians about the Liberal government's May decision to list plastic as “toxic” under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). The designation will allow the federal government to regulate plastic in the country, including efforts like implementing a ban on six harmful plastic items — such as plastic straws and six-pack rings — and a revamped recycling system.
However, the survey's three questions lead readers to believe the toxic designation will let the federal government “override provincial jurisdiction” and is the first step of an economy-wide, post-pandemic “reset” that will result in “plant closures, job losses, and a ... loss of local control.”
“This is the remaking of Canada, it's the start of it,” said Joe Hruska, spokesperson for the Canada Coalition of Plastic Producers (CCPP) and a career-long advocate for Canada's $28-billion plastics industry, in an interview with Canada's National Observer. The CCPP commissioned the survey and is made up of “a couple dozen” companies in the plastic packaging industry, Hruska said.
All reporting produced as part of the project is free to the public and is not behind National Observer's paywall.