Ottawa to track plastic production and waste

Companies will have to report usage for federal registry

Canada is creating a national registry to track plastic production and pollution, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Monday, with Ottawa set to host another round of negotiations toward a global treaty to end plastic waste.

The talks, set to kick off on Tuesday, seek to find international agreement on how to tackle the world’s plastics habit, in a similar vein to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

Guilbeault said one of the keys to making it work is for countries like Canada to have a better handle on what plastic we’re making and what happens to it.

Since 2022, Environment and Climate Change Canada has been consulting on the development of a plastics registry, similar to how it tracks greenhouse-gas emissions.

The registry is to be phased in over the next few years.

Guilbeault said it will make plastics producers more responsible for what they are putting on the market.

“What we’re aiming to do with this registry is to ensure that there’s more transparency in Canada on the production and use of plastics,” he said.

“It is hard to tackle a problem if you don’t know what it is, where it is, what’s being used.”

For years, Canada has asked industries to report on emissions they produce, and those data are a critical component of Canada’s annual reporting on total emissions. Guilbeault said the plastics registry will be similar.

Companies that produce or import plastic in Canada will have to report every year how much of it they are putting on the market, along with how much plastic waste they generate. That includes reporting on how much they send for recycling or reuse, versus how much is simply tossed out.

The registry will start with plastic packaging, electronics and singleuse items, and eventually expand to include plastic resins, tires and plastic products for agriculture.

Statistics Canada reported that in 2019, 6.2 million tonnes of plastic was produced in Canada, more than one-third of it for packaging alone.

Canada also estimates that more than four million tonnes of plastic ends up as waste each year.