The Government of Canada has a broad goal of moving toward zero plastic waste. This goal includes requiring at least 50 percent recycled content in plastic packaging by 2030. Environment and Climate Change Canada (“ECCC”), the federal ministry charged with the recycling file, has released two consultations regarding a suite of measures it believes will make tangible progress towards these targets. The two relevant consultations are: the Recycled content and labelling rules for plastics: Regulatory Framework Paper and Technical paper: Federal Plastics Registry.

Recycled Content and Labelling Rules for Plastics: Proposed Regulations

The Government proposes to enact regulations using authorities under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (“CEPA”). The proposed regulations have three key elements focused on:

(1) Recycled content requirements
(2) Recyclability labelling rules
(3) Compostability labelling

These proposals are distinct, but related, and are detailed briefly below. To understand the proposals fully, we recommend reviewing the documents posted by ECCC on the Government of Canada website, which you can find here.

1: Minimum Recycled Content Requirements

The regulations propose mandating minimum levels of recycled post-consumer plastics in packaging. The objective of these rules is to regulate entities with the most control over the design and marketing of plastic packaging and single-use plastics. The proposed regulations would apply to both biobased plastics and conventional plastics, and packaging in this context refers to primary, secondary, and e-commerce packaging.

Plastic packaging is divided into rigid and flexible packaging, which are subject to specified minimum levels of recycled materials.

Exemptions to the content requirements include packaging that is waste, reusable packaging, tertiary or transport packaging (except for e-commerce), packaging intended for export to another country, or goods in transit. Small businesses, those with a gross revenue of under $5,000,000 or those who placed less than 10 tonnes of plastic packaging on the Canadian market in the previous year will also be exempt from the recycled content requirements.

The timeline for the transition to minimum recycling contents will begin in 2025.

2: Recyclability Labelling Rules

Recyclability labelling rules apply to consumer-facing primary and secondary plastic packaging, as well as single-use plastics. In short, the recyclability labelling rules require that accurate information is communicated to Canadian consumers about the recyclability of the product and instructions regarding how to properly dispose of the product.

Before placing an item on the market, regulated parties must assess their item against three recyclability criteria: collection, sorting and, re-processing. Once the regulated party has assessed each item for recyclability, the regulated party must categorize them based on the results as recyclable, non-recyclable, and collected. Based on the categorization, a regulated party would then need to add the correct label to the item. These labelling rules will revamp existing recyclability labelling. For example, the use of “chasing arrows” will be prohibited.

Exemptions to recyclability labelling rules are narrow and align broadly with food labeling rules outlined in the Food and Drug Regulations. Although labels are only required for plastics, regulated parties can choose to implement these elements for use on non-plastic packaging.

3: Compostability Labelling

Compostability labelling rules apply to consumer-facing primary and secondary plastic packaging, as well as single-use plastics.

Items labelled as “compostable” must be certified by an accredited third party to be an acceptable standard. Regulated parties are prohibited from labelling items with the term “degradable” or “biodegradable” or any form of those terms that implies the item will break down, fragment, or biodegrade in the environment. These items require a label of “non-recyclable”. No exemptions to compostability rules are currently proposed.

Compostability rules are intended to be phased in by 2030.

Federal Plastics Registry

A federal plastics registry is intended to improve the Government’s knowledge of plastic waste, value recovery and pollution across Canada. The federal plastics registry would standardize the data that is collected on provincial and territorial Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) programs. From July to October 2022, the government received submissions on their consultation paper outlining the proposed approach to establishing a federal plastics registry. An updated version was released on April 18, 2023. To understand the Federal Plastics Registry proposal, we recommend reviewing the documents posted by ECCC on the Government of Canada website, which you can find here.

Parties, specifically provincial and territorial producers and federal producers will be obligated to report. Any businesses exempted under a provincial or territorial EPR policy will only need to report plastics placed on the market. The registry will require particular data points from producers of plastic products within each category. Data points include plastics collected for diversion, plastics successfully reused, and plastics sent to landfill.

The registry will provide data that is open and easily accessible to Canadians and will conform to the Directive on Open Government and the Directive on Service and Digital. Despite the open data, the registry should not compromise confidential information provided by producers.

Phase 1 reporting will begin on June 1, 2024.

Conclusion

Change is hard. While we expect that these changes will be perceived as threatening to operations, requiring drastic changes for certain industries, they’re also likely to be perceived as not aggressive enough by others. We generally view the proposed regulations as being aligned with an attempt by the developed world to reduce and recover plastic waste and encourage packaging alternatives. For example, as of January 1, 2023, new EU laws require brands that export to France and Italy to provide recycling information on all consumer product labels. We recommend that entities with experience in the French and Italian markets look to compliance efforts in those markets to better contextualize these changes.

Environment and Climate Change Canada intend to release finalized regulations regarding recycled content rules before the end of 2023.

Partners and stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the Recycled content and labelling rules for plastics: regulatory framework paper and the Technical paper: Federal Plastics Registry by May 18, 2023. Feedback can be sent via mail or email to:

Tracey Spack, Director
Plastics Regulatory Affairs Division
351 Blvd Saint-Joseph
Gatineau, QC
K1A 0H3
plastiques-plastics@ec.gc.ca

Reduce, Reuse, Re-label: Environment and Climate Change Canada Release Consultation on Plastics