Why Canada’s Plastics Ban Is About More Than Litter
By Marco Chown Oved | June 20, 2022 | The Toronto Star
Monday’s ban on certain single-use plastics is not just about litter and pollution, shopping bags caught in trees and microplastics floating in the ocean.
It’s also about limiting future demand for oil, say academics and researchers.
In the coming years, as the world cuts back on fossil fuels for transportation, electricity generation and heating, the oil industry is pivoting to plastic production, according to the International Energy Agency.
The IEA projects that plastics alone will account for a third of the growth in demand for oil by 2030, and almost half by 2050.
Or as Judith Enck, president of the Vermont-based non-profit Beyond Plastics, puts it: “Plastics is the Plan B for the fossil fuel industry.”
“Plastics have immense climate-change implications,” Enck said. “By 2030, there will be more greenhouse gas emissions from plastics than from coal-fired power plants in the U.S.”
The federal government confirmed Monday it will ban the production and importation of plastic bags and takeout containers by the end of this year. By the end of next year, selling them will be prohibited.
While some countries, and now Canada, are climbing aboard the plastic-reduction bandwagon, globally, use of plastics is still skyrocketing. Plastic production, which was 367 million metric tons in 2020, is forecast to triple by 2050.
