OTTAWA, Ontario – Canada’s prime minister calls it a problem that can’t be ignored. By 2021, single-use plastic items like bags, straws, cutlery, and stirring sticks will be banned in the country.
Justin Trudeau says Canadians will throw away an estimated $11 billion worth of plastic materials each year by 2030.
According to the government there, every year 1 million birds and more than 100,000 sea mammals worldwide are injured or die when they mistake plastic for food.
Globally, a truckload of plastic waste enters the ocean every minute.
In late March, the European Parliament passed a similar ban on single-use plastic items including a target to recycle 90% of plastic beverage bottles by 2029.
In May, the United Kingdom followed suit with a plastic ban by 2020.
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