Calgary plastic bag manufacturer struggles to accept government’s ban
Posted Dec 21, 2022 7:29 pm.
Last Updated Dec 21, 2022 7:30 pm.
A Calgary plastic bag manufacturer is struggling to accept the government’s decision to officially ban the manufacturing and import of several single use plastics.
As of Tuesday, companies could no longer produce or bring plastic checkout bags, cutlery, stir sticks, straws and takeout containers into Canada — and in a year, it will be illegal to sell them.
The manufacturing and import ban will extend to the plastic rings used to package six-packs of canned drinks next June, and their sale will be prohibited a year after that.
“I think in the long run, it might not be a good solution,” said Eric Tang of Triple Three Limited LTD (TTL).
Tang says some local businesses were loading up on plastic check-out bags prior to Canada’s manufacturing ban.
“Within the three months we have to build up a whole year of inventory … which is good for us for business, but after this … we have to stop manufacture,” Tang added.
“The last couple of years we already had a paper shortage and people cannot deliver boxes or paper on time. The delay is talking about three to six months on average for the last couple of years.”
The federal government estimates that getting rid of single use plastics will eliminate 1.3 million tonnes of plastic waste. However, for TTL and some of their customers, the solution to the ban has yet to be found.
READ MORE:
“We heard a lot of small businesses locally … they are really struggling with this decision by the federal government, because they don’t know what to use.”
Tang says the ban has forced TTL to cut roughly 10 per cent of their business operations, a gap which they hope to fill in 2023.
Statistics published last month suggested that Canadians were already cutting back on using items such as straws and plastic bags ahead of the national ban.
— With files from The Canadian Press.
