Plastics and Packaging Regulation in Canada

A rapidly evolving area with federal and provincial layers, significant variation, and real compliance consequences for food companies.

What used to be a niche waste-management topic has become a live compliance issue. Federal regulation, provincial extended producer responsibility programmes, mandatory reporting, restrictions on recyclability claims, and the ongoing fallout from the CEPA single-use plastics litigation have created a regulatory environment that is moving faster than most companies' compliance programmes. This page addresses packaging regulation as it applies to food companies specifically, not general consumer-goods packaging. Companies that are not tracking these developments are discovering their obligations late.

Federal Prohibitions and Registry

The Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SOR/2022-138) ban six categories of single-use plastic items. The regulations were challenged after Ottawa added plastic manufactured items to Schedule 1 of CEPA. The Federal Court struck down the listing in 2023; the Federal Court of Appeal restored it on January 30, 2026, holding that plastic manufactured items can qualify as a substance under CEPA and that there was sufficient evidence of potential harm. The prohibition regulations remain in force.

The Federal Plastics Registry, administered by ECCC, is the federal reporting infrastructure. Phase 1 covers packaging, single-use plastics, and electronics; organizations must continue reporting Phase 1 data for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 calendar years. ECCC has postponed Phases 2 and 3, which were to have expanded the Registry to resin manufacturers, importers, and additional product categories. The Registry does not replace provincial EPR reporting; it sits on top of it.

Provincial EPR and Reporting

Extended Producer Responsibility programmes are provincial, and every province runs its programme differently. Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec have the most developed programmes, each with different registration requirements, fee structures, and stewardship organization models. Other provinces are at various stages of development or transition.

For food companies operating nationally, the compliance challenge is mapping obligations across every province where product is sold, registering with the applicable stewardship organizations, and reporting accurately. Food companies are particularly exposed because national SKU rollouts, private-label structures, and brand-owner allocation issues multiply the registration and reporting burden across provinces. Forward-looking fee structures, particularly as they relate to transactions or complex ownership structures, are creating challenging compliance problems that did not exist five years ago.

Packaging and Environmental Claims

Recyclability claims, compostability statements, and environmental benefit representations on packaging are subject to the Competition Act's deceptive marketing provisions, including the greenwashing amendments at ss. 74.01(1)(b.1) and (b.2). The compliance significance of the chasing-arrows symbol depends on the impression it creates in context; regulators are moving toward rules that treat its use as a recyclability signal unless specific conditions are met. A "recyclable" claim on packaging that is not actually recyclable in the jurisdictions where the product is sold is a misleading representation. See Food Advertising and Marketing Law for the broader greenwashing framework.

Food-Contact Packaging

Food-contact packaging has its own safety overlay. Recycled plastic used in food packaging must satisfy Health Canada's food safety expectations under the Food and Drugs Act. Sustainability goals and food safety requirements do not always point in the same direction. A packaging change driven by circularity commitments still needs to clear the food-contact safety assessment. Health Canada's guidance on packaging materials and recycled plastics applies independently of the environmental regulation.

Transaction and Corporate Structure Implications

EPR registration, stewardship fees, and reporting obligations attach to the "producer" or "brand owner," and the definition of who qualifies varies by province. In transactions involving complex ownership structures, the allocation of these obligations requires careful analysis. Acquirers need to understand the target's EPR registration status, fee exposure, and compliance history across provinces. Sellers need to address what happens to stewardship obligations on closing.

Where Counsel Fits

This is a fluid area of law, with different jurisdictions moving in different directions and at different paces. The value counsel provides is mapping current obligations across the federal and provincial regulatory regimes before a compliance gap becomes an enforcement problem. For food companies, the specific issues are: EPR registration and reporting across provinces; claims review for environmental representations on packaging; the interaction between federal plastics regulation and provincial recycling systems; food-contact safety for packaging changes driven by sustainability goals; and the implications of EPR obligations in transactions and corporate restructuring.

GSJ&Co. tracks federal plastics regulation and provincial EPR developments as part of the firm's food regulatory practice. Contact info@gsjameson.com or +1 (647) 638-3994.

Primary Authorities

Last updated: March 2026. This page is maintained by GSJ&Co. and updated as federal and provincial packaging regulation evolves.