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e-1834 (Environmental pollution)

E-petition
Initiated by Chélie Elsom from Salmon Arm, British Columbia

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the House of Commons

Whereas:
  • Canadians use 1 billion single-use plastic bags each year;
  • Canadians discard approximately 57 million single-use plastic straws everyday;
  • Only 11% of plastics are currently recycled in Canada;
  • Manufacturing of single-use plastics is a significant waste of resources, dollars and energy;
  • Globally, plastic pollution poses a serious and significant environmental threat; and
  • Plastic pollution is a multifaceted problem, therefore, solutions should include a plan for education and public awareness, as well as for the responsible production, consumption, collection, processing and re-using of all plastic packaging.
We, the undersigned, citizens of Canada, call upon the House of Commons to commit to a National Plastic Strategy which includes:
1. An education and public awareness campaign highlighting the scope and impact of global plastic pollution;
2. A ban on the manufacturing, distribution and use of all plastics that cannot be recycled;
3. A ban on all single-use plastics that are hard to recycle and most often end up in landfills or waterways;
4. A commitment to encourage a circular plastics economy by keeping recyclable plastics out of landfills and instead reusing them in a closed-loop system effectively saving billions in manufacturing costs while producing less waste;
5. A commitment to invest in the infrastructure, on a municipal, provincial and federal level, to collect, sort, process, recycle and re-use all plastic packaging;
6. A Zero Plastic Waste Canada by 2030, by ensuring all plastic packaging is 100% recyclable, re-usable or compostable.
Government response tabled on August 21, 2019 (Sessional Paper No. 8545-421-220-04)
Open for signature
September 12, 2018, at 2:32 p.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
January 10, 2019, at 2:32 p.m. (EDT)
Presented to the House of Commons
Paul Manly (Nanaimo—Ladysmith)
June 5, 2019 (Petition No. 421-04146)
Government response tabled
August 21, 2019
Photo - Elizabeth May
Saanich—Gulf Islands
Green Party Caucus
British Columbia