Petition to Exempt Compostable Bags

You may know the government is moving to ban certain single-use plastic products. However, they have not made a provision for certified fully-compostable check out bags, which have an exceptionally low environmental impact, and can also be reused to collect food scraps to encourage organic waste diversion.

I am sponsoring a Petition from Christine Reyes Vera of Calgary which asks the government to exempt certified compostable checkout bags from being prohibited. If you agree, you can sign it here until December 22: Petition e-4067

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Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:

• Current scientific evidence indicates that macroplastic pollution poses an ecological hazard, including physical harm, to some animals and their habitat;
• Action is needed to restrict or eliminate single-use plastics that pose a threat of harm to the environment;
• Certified compostable checkout bags have been proven by accredited laboratories (such as Biodegradable Products Institute – BPI) to decompose to non-toxic biomass within 84 days or less;
• Certified compostable checkout bags have been proven to disappear within 3 months within marine environments by The School of Biological and Marine Sciences, University of Plymouth;
• Certified compostable checkout bags are an alternative that provides one of the lowest environmental impacts according to an LCA performed in 2018 by The Danish Environmental Protection Agency;
• The ECCC (Environment and Climate Change Canada) has identified heavier multiple-use carrier bags such as composite and cotton bags (fabric) as the checkout bag of choice despite them obtaining the highest negative environmental impacts across all impact categories;
• Certified compostable checkout bags also function as a food scraps collection device to support organic waste diversion from landfills to compost facilities, resulting in the reduction of landfill waste and methane emissions; and
• Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations: SOR/2022-138, Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 156, Number 13, indicates this regulation will treat single-use items made from non-conventional plastics in the same manner as their conventional plastic counterparts.
  

We, the undersigned, citizens or residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to exempt certified compostable checkout bags from being prohibited and treated as conventional single-use plastic checkout bags, allowing the importation and sale of certified compostable checkout bags throughout Canada.