Canada’s plastic reality: we’ve crossed the threshold

by Jacquie Rushlow

On Jan. 30, the Federal Court of Appeal finally reaffirmed what so many Canadians, scientists and environmental leaders have understood for years: single- use plastics have no place in a healthy future. After legal challenges (mostly from big oil industry) and confusion that left many wondering whether this critical ban would come into force, the court confirmed the government’s authority to act by upholding the decision to list plastics as toxic. This isn’t just a legal win, it’s a common sense shift in how we live.

This ban applies to some of the most ubiquitous items we’ve come to take for granted (and perhaps didn’t understand the toxicity of): plastic checkout bags, straws, stir sticks, disposable cutlery, six-pack rings and certain foodservice ware. These objects were so ordinary they became invisible, until we started seeing their impact everywhere: tangled in trees, choking wildlife, breaking down into microplastics in soil and water and inside our bodies.

The beauty of this transition is that most of us already live plastic-light without even noticing. Reusable bags aren’t novel anymore; they’ve just become part of the rhythm of shopping. Metal or paper straws feel different at first, but soon feel normal. Bringing your reusable cup to refill coffee at the café is now rewarded instead of questioned; your laundry detergent container has been refilled locally for six years now rather than getting tossed into a landfill taking over 500 years to breakdown.

We’ve proven as individuals and communities that life without these items isn’t inconvenient — it’s actually effortless once the habit is established. What once felt like a sacrifice has become part of our daily routines.

Reducing these plastics doesn’t require perfection; it requires participation. By removing single-use items from circulation, millions of pieces of plastic are kept out of landfills, waterways and ecosystems where they would otherwise break down into microplastics that persist for centuries. The benefits are both local and global, helping reduce pollution and ease the strain on recycling systems that were never designed to handle this volume of waste.

There’s immense power in this simple step. By removing a handful of throwaways from our lives, we’re signalling that we no longer accept pollution as the price of convenience. Using single-use plastic isn’t cool or easily accepted anymore. We know better now and therefore need to do better. Heck, if the government can, so can we.

What feels like a major policy shift is really just Canada catching up to habits many of us, and many other countries, have already embraced. As these items have faded from shelves and daily routines, what remains: reusable, thoughtful, less wasteful choices, quickly feel normal. And when we look back on single-use plastics, it won’t be with nostalgia, but with relief that we finally called single-use what it always was: unnecessary.

Jacquie Rushlow, CEO of The Keep Refillery, walked away from a career as a television producer to focus on ridding the world of single-use plastics.