Adversity Meets Opportunity: Canada's Ban On Plastics Opens Door For Innovation

Earlier this month, the Canadian government announced plans to ban single-use plastics by 2021 at the earliest. The Federal government is introducing this ban in the wake of news that the Philippines is returning 61 shipping containers full of contaminated recyclable waste to Canada. Also, the ban comes less than a week after a study out of the University of Victoria found humans are unknowingly consuming up to 120,000 particles of microplastics each year.

Once admired as a product of human ingenuity, spawning such slogans as "better living through chemistry," in recent years plastics have increasingly become synonymous with environmental degradation and pollution. A 2015 study found that 8 million tons of plastic garbage is dumped into the ocean each year, and as the use of plastics for consumer products becomes increasingly dominant, that number is set to rise to 155 million tons by 2025 if present garbage management practices remain. Globally, 91% of plastics are