TORONTO — Effective December 20, 2022, the manufacture and import for sale of the following harmful single-use plastics in Canada is prohibited: checkout bags, cutlery, foodservice ware, stir sticks and straws (with some exceptions).
While the ban comes into effect this month, the Canadian government is giving businesses time to deplete their existing stock of these items and their sale will be prohibited as of December 2023. Restaurant operators must inform their suppliers and customers of these prohibitions and plan to cease the import, export and sale of these products.
Reducing plastics by replacing them with non-plastic equivalents may be an option for certain essential products. In the case of single-use plastic cutlery, stir sticks and straws, products made from wood, paper or moulded pulp fibre are options for non-plastic materials. Containers made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or polypropylene are recommended as well.
So far, Yum! Brands has removed consumer-facing packaging made from extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) and expanded polystyrene (EPS) globally, across all its KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations. In 2019, Starbucks and Tim Hortons introduced “strawless” lids for cold drinks while other restaurants, like A&W, made the switch to paper straws.
