Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that the government is looking at different options to limit the use of single-use plastics and make plastic producers responsible for the collection and recycling of their products under new regulations.
The announcement will not include specifics about the type of products that will be banned, which will be determined with scientific and expert input, but the ban should follow a plastics ban approved by the European Union (EU) in March.
The EU’s ban that will come into effect by 2021 includes plastic items such as plates, cutlery, straws, cotton swabs made of plastic and products made of oxo-degradable plastics, such as bags, which do not biodegrade completely due to additives.
The EU also aims to collect 90 per cent of plastic bottles by 2029.
READ MORE: European Union to ban single-use plastics by 2021
The EU’s motion made it a part of a growing number of countries enforcing bans on plastic items.
The U.K. announced a similar ban shortly before the EU’s vote, and more than 30 other countries have banned at least some single-use plastics, including France, India, Taiwan and Italy, as well as a number of states, such as New York and California.
