Canadian Plastics

Canada plastic pact launched to improve recycling, composting rate

Canadian Plastics   

Canadian Plastics Packaging Recycling Sustainability editor pick

Made up from more than 40 companies, the pact aims to recycle or compost 50 per cent of Canada's plastic packaging by 2025.

 

A group of more than 40 Canadian companies from leading brands to waste management firms, government institutions, and NGOs have unveiled the Canada Plastics Pact, a plan to recycle or compost 50 per cent of Canada’s plastic packaging by 2025.

The companies represent diverse parts of the plastics value chain, and include Canadian Tire Corp., the Circular Plastics Task Force, Coca-Cola Canada, EFS Plastics Inc., Loblaw Companies Ltd., Merlin Plastics, Nestlé Canada, PAC Packaging Consortium, Unilever Canada, and Walmart Canada.

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Because plastic packaging accounts for 47 per cent of all plastic waste, it is the immediate focus of the CPP’s collective efforts, which will centre around four targets by 2025:

  • Define a list of plastic packaging that is to be designated as problematic or unnecessary and take measures to eliminate them
  • Support efforts towards 100 per cent of plastic packaging being designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable
  • Undertake ambitious actions to ensure that at least 50 per cent of plastic packaging is effectively recycled or composted
  • Ensure an average of at least 30 per cent recycled content across all plastic packaging (by weight)

“With an eye for bold systematic change, the CPP will work to eliminate the plastics we don’t need, innovate to ensure that the plastics we do need are reusable, recyclable or compostable, and circulate the plastic we use, keeping it the economy and out of the environment,” the group said in a Jan. 27 mission statement.

The pact comes three months after Canada’s federal government announced details on a nationwide ban, set to take effect by the end of this year, on single-use plastic items including grocery bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery, and food containers made from hard-to-recycle plastics.

The CPP joins a number of other similar agreements worldwide, including the United States Plastic Pact, which was announced in August 2020.

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