Banning all single-use plastics like plastic bags, stir sticks, cutlery and straws by 2021 is the goal for our country, Canada. This is great news to our zero-waste community. Following the banning of foam containers in the city, many of the businesses have already switched over to using cardboard take-out boxes. Some may notice that the prices of products may have increased. Some business owners mention that they need to offset the cost of the biodegradable containers.

I believe that it is a small price to pay to reduce these single-use plastics. Therefore, we can further reduce the amount of trash in our landfills. Hopefully, more and more people will work towards reusing more of their current items instead of just throwing them away.

Apparently, Canada’s list of plastics to ban will be like the European Union’s list, which includes ”single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers”. The European Union also plans to have this plastic ban take place in 2021.

Shopping In Canada

One of the most common single-use plastics that I often see in supermarkets is those rolls of flimsy plastic bags for purchasing your fresh fruits and vegetables. Imagine all those pieces of plastic being thrown away after just one use of holding your apples and broccoli! These plastic bags are so delicate that one use can already damage these bags. Hence, even if you want to reuse them, you are not able to, as they have holes poked into them.

Let us begin our grocery shopping journey with some reusable shopping bags and then, throw a few mesh grocery bags inside. This way, you will always have a mesh bag on hand and can get into the habit of avoiding those single use ones!

So remember, it is time to pick up some mesh bags and start the new year with a bang!