Plastics ban can't be instant, restaurants warn Ottawa
Canada's restaurant owners are eager to do their part to curb this country's addiction to plastics, their association says, but they want the government to leave time for them to adapt to a ban on plastic take-out containers.Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said Thursday Ottawa's promised ban on many single-use plastics is coming in 2021 after a scientific assessment of plastic pollution released Thursday found that the waste is harmful to the environment.The list of what will be banned is still in development.Carol Patterson, national vice-president at Restaurants Canada, said the industry needs a reasonable time to find and procure alternatives that are both affordable and better for the environment.“We are really calling on the government to have an approach that takes into account the full life cycle of products but also providing those reasonable timelines for safe and functional alternatives to enter the market,'' Patterson said.At the same time as restaurants are grappling with finding non-plastic options, they are seeing a surge in demand for take-out containers from the explosion of online food-delivery services.