Canada Considering Recycled Content Requirements for Plastic Imports, Including Beverage Bottles
Canada is launching a rulemaking process that could result in new restrictions on imports of some plastic manufactured items, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service said in a report Feb. 22. The Canadian Department of the Environment seeks comments by March 14 on a proposed regulation that would set minimum recycled content requirements, following a product-specific approach that would apply different thresholds for recycled content that would generally fall around 50%, USDA said.
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“The recycled content requirements would apply to any person or business that manufactures, imports, or sells the items in Canada, and could enter into force as soon as 2025,” the report said.
A “technical issues” paper issued alongside the comment request includes details of the proposed regulations. The paper says recycled content requirements could take effect in 2025 or 2030 at various levels, depending on the product, for product categories including beverage containers, other plastic bottles, non-bottle rigid containers and trays, foam packaging, film and flexible plastic packaging, garbage bags and waste bins.
Plastic food packaging would be exempt. “At this time, primary plastic food packaging, defined as packaging that has direct contact with food, would be excluded from the scope of the future regulations,” the USDA report said. “However, plastic beverage containers for ‘carbonated and non-carbonated beverages including water, soft drinks and juice’ are currently part of the scope of this initiative.”