Closing the Gaps: Single-use Plastic Regulations, Recycling, Recycled Content and Labelling Rules in Canada

  • February 14, 2023
  • Denisa Mertiri, senior associate, and Morgane L. Besner, associate, Borden Ladner Gervais

Faced with the consequences of plastic pollution on the environment and human health, governments across Canada are confronting the challenge by developing strategies to achieve zero plastic waste. The result is a proliferation of regulations by all orders of government with sometimes overlapping measures, as in the case of federal and municipal bans on single-use plastics.  

This bulletin provides an update on the status of single-use plastic regulations and other regulatory measures – including recycling – taken to reduce the impact of plastics in the environment across Canada, and provides an overview of upcoming federal regulations on recycled content and labelling rules for products.

Here’s what you need to know regarding the regulatory landscape of plastics in Canada today:

  • On Dec. 20, 2022, the federal Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (the SUPR) came into force. The regulations will gradually ban a number of single-use plastic (SUP) items starting with a ban on the manufacturing and importing of these items as of Dec. 20, 2022.
  • Provinces regulate the recycling of residential packaging and paper waste through what are known as blue box programs, which are run by municipalities. Most provinces have passed, or are in the process of passing, legislation that makes the producers of plastic packaging fully responsible for both the operation and the financing of these recycling programs.
  • Certain provinces, including Québec, Ontario and B.C., also regulate SUPs through their blue box programs. Producers of SUP items pay fees for SUP items that they introduce into the market. More provinces, including Alberta, are starting to take a similar approach.
  • B.C. is currently consulting on the expansion of its residential blue box program to include industrial, commercial and institutional (IC&I) packaging and paper products.
  • Municipalities, including Vancouver, Montréal, Laval and Calgary, have passed or are in the process of passing local bans on certain SUP items.
  • Future action at the federal level includes recycled content for new plastic items as well as regulations on the use of environmental labels to minimize the practice of greenwashing.