Single-use plastics ban poses challenge for Canada’s fossil fuel sector
The oil industry’s next threat could be in the grocery aisle.A worldwide movement to limit single-use plastics in food packaging poses a challenge for Canada’s fossil fuel sector, at the same time that large companies struggle with volatile prices, pipeline constraints and the global rise of electric vehicles.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Canada would join other countries and ban as early as 2021 a range of everyday plastics that are frequently discarded after a single use, including forks and knives, shopping bags and stir sticks.The move is part of wider efforts by the Liberal government to improve Canada’s dismal recycling rates and reduce pollution, just five months shy of a federal election in which the environment and climate change promise to be major issues.The proposed ban would align with European Union regulations on single-use plastics, and a global push that some analysts and energy companies say has major implications for global oil demand and industry revenues.The oil industry supplies chemical manufacturers with the building blocks needed to make resins that are used to create plastic products.
