Guilbeault’s plan to ban grocery store meat wrapping, fruit bags

Jul 19, 2023

Reporter (Saskatchewan)

Christopher Oldcorn is a Saskatchewan Reporter for the Western Standard & Saskatchewan Standard. He studied at the Centre for Investigative Journalism at Goldsmith’s, University of London and served as editor-in-chief of the SaultOnline.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault's department issued a deadline on Wednesday for grocers to provide their feedback on proposed restrictions regarding single-use plastics, such as meat wrapping and fruit bags.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, they have until the end of the month to submit their comments.

Approximately $205 million will be the cost to consumers due to the current ban on plastic six-pack rings and other goods, according to official estimates.

“A significant amount of plastic food packaging is used only once and then ends up in landfills,” said Guilbeault.

Guilbeault did not give an estimate of how much the new regulations would cost.

The Department of Environment has announced that it plans to draft regulations by the end of 2023 to reduce the usage of single-use meat wrapping and produce bags.

“There is a need to do business differently,” it wrote in a statement.

“That is why the Government of Canada is taking action to reduce plastic pollution.”

In a notice Development of a Pollution Prevention Planning Notice for Primary Food Plastic Packaging, the department proposed to “require Canada’s largest grocery retailers to prepare and implement a pollution prevention plan to meet targets to reduce, reuse and redesign primary food plastic packaging including recycling content targets.”

Regulations targeted “plastic packaging that comes into direct contact with food,” it said.

The proposal was first introduced in a 2020 discussion paper A Proposed Integrated Management Approach to Plastic Products to Prevent Waste and Pollution. This paper raised questions about using several plastic items, including meat wrapping, fruit and vegetable bags, water bottles, cup lids, and disposable wipes.

More information was required to determine “whether management action is needed and which measures should be considered,” said the discussion paper.

By Dec. 31, a separate regulatory ban will be implemented on six blacklisted plastic products.

These items include polystyrene food containers, single-use cutlery, straws, grocery bags and six-pack rings.

The department mentioned in a notice from 2021 that enforcing this ban will come with significant costs.

“The proposed regulations are expected to result in $205 million in costs in the first year of full policy stringency, 2024,” said a Regulatory Impact Analysis Statement.

“Some consumers may feel the burden of these costs more than others.”

According to the staff, there are substitutes available for plastic checkout bags such as paper bags, which cost eight cents each, more expensive than the current plastic bags, which cost three cents each.

Currently, consumers use approximately 15.6 billion checkout bags every year.

Plastic forks that cost four cents each could be replaced with wooden cutlery that costs nine cents.

Instead of using penny straws, switch to paper straws that cost three cents each.

Also, replace plastic six-pack rings, which cost three cents each, with cardboard alternatives that cost 34 cents.

Staff said “while the unit price of any one single substitute is relatively small” the overall expense multiplied by billions of substitute items was costly.

“The total substitution costs per year for the proposed regulations are expected to be significant given these substitutes would replace around 30 billion single-use plastic items annually or around 800 single-use plastic items per Canadian,” said Impact Analysis.

Reporter (Saskatchewan)

Christopher Oldcorn is a Saskatchewan Reporter for the Western Standard & Saskatchewan Standard. He studied at the Centre for Investigative Journalism at Goldsmith’s, University of London and served as editor-in-chief of the SaultOnline.

I’m all for garbage reduction. Fruit bags well ok but meat wrappers no. There are a lot of other things that can be eliminated. How about all the extra packaging that is only there to make the product look pretty? All that plastic that hold toys in place, or wrapping thing in plastic so they can hang on clip strips. Same goes for tools and auto supplies. Start there, but no go only for the food. You know where plastic should be used to keep food from spoiling. Instead they are going after the items that are wrapped in plastic unnecessary, it’s the Liberal/NDP way! By the way aren’t plastic diapers causing the most problems? Don’t see him going after those now do we?

I will go out of my way to do the opposite of what these vile deserving to die criminal maggots suggest

Guilbeault and the Canada of Government is working hard to make life even less affordable for its citizens. This idiot and his puppet master need to go as they have already caused enormous damage to Canada.

This is socialism- How do you like it so far?

A race back to the 50’s. Refuse pile in the back yard and a wood stove in the house. Forests being cut to heat and cook. Cheap easily attained energy cleaned up our environment and brought us out of poverty as it will the third world who care nothing about climate change and they out number us 2-1. Liberal emissions policy will send us back 75 years before it reduces global emissions by 1 tonne of CO₂︎ or 1 tonne of plastic waste. All this for a total contribution of less than 2% of global emissions. Government always sacrifices much to gain little or nothing.

Great way to make our food highly susceptible to cross contamination. What a waste of breath this idiot is.

After three years of abusing a nation with unethical covid measures and having suffered no accountability as a result, people like this talking jack o lantern feel invincible. As Sowell once said, there is no worse way to run things than to put in charge those who face no consequence for being wrong.

So, let’s imagine this. The end to proper and sanitary wrapping and storage of our foods. NOW watch the sickness and diseases emerge. In some countries markets or grocery store meat is just piled up on table for customers and covered in flies - perhaps that’s the new Canadian way headed our way 🤷🏼‍♀️🪰

Brought to you from the people whose mantra for the past 3 yrs has been “working hard to keep 🇨🇦s safe” plastic dividers at checkouts, masks & floor decals! Find a farmer & buy direct, or go hunting. Moose meat is fabulous.

It will come wrapped in brown waxed paper like it did in stores 50 yrs ago. I’ve recycled & composted for close to 30 yrs. But I’m at the point of revolting & throwing the works into the garbage, & go back to the good old burning barrel. These are 2 idiots who can’t earn a living at a real job like other people do so they dream up cr-p to blow millions of other people’s money on foolishness. BTW who owns the wood cutlery, paper bag companies. Those of us old enough remember the horror & hoopla of cutting down trees for this purpose back in the day! 🤦‍♀️

Unfortunately ya can't fix stupid!

These two Clowns are completely Insane . . . .

Canada is already Sinking . . . these Fools want to pull another plug and speed up the process. What does it matter what we do in Canada when 6 BILLION in the Rest of the World are growing their Coal, Oil & Gas use by Double Digits EVERY YEAR?

This not about the "Klimate" at all . . . this is about making Canada just like the CCP!

Rarely get takeaway, but recently stopped for a coffee with my mother and son.

Sure seemed foolish, drinking iced coffee through that soggy paper straw ...

from the PLASTIC CUP.

The thing that astounds me is that nearly 50% of the country plans to vote for these same clowns again.

Here’s the keys, it’s all yours.

Liberals - working hard to make food more expensive for ordinary Canadians.

Someone should put both of those politicians in the photo in a plastic bag and Huck them off a bridge

I would be happy to see that. 😍

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