Supreme Court to Hear Appeal on Federal Single-Use Plastics Ban

The Supreme Court of Canada announced Thursday it will hear an appeal regarding the federal government's ban on single-use plastics, according to reporting from CBC News and CityNews Toronto.

In 2021, the Liberal government utilized the Canadian Environmental Protection Act to list "plastic manufactured items" (PMI) as toxic. This classification allowed Ottawa to phase in a ban starting in 2022 on six specific items: straws, stir sticks, cutlery, takeout containers, six-pack rings, and grocery bags. The government stated these items were targeted because they are common litter and have accessible alternatives, as reported by CityNews Toronto.

The ban has faced a volatile legal path. In 2023, Federal Court Justice Angela Furlanetto struck down the ban, ruling that the federal government failed to prove all plastics cause harm and that the classification was too sweeping, thereby trespassing on provincial jurisdiction, CBC News reports.

That decision was later overturned in January by the Federal Court of Appeal. Justice Donald Rennie and two other judges ruled that the listing was reasonable and did not infringe on provincial or territorial jurisdiction. The appeal court dismissed arguments from the plastics industry—which includes three chemical companies and the Responsible Plastic Use Coalition—that a lack of testing on harmful plastics made the decision unreasonable. The judges noted that the issue is the plastic item itself rather than its chemistry, specifically citing the example of a sea otter choking on a straw, per CityNews Toronto.

The Supreme Court's upcoming decision will determine if the federal government can maintain the ban on these single-use plastics.