Plastic

Sayonara, single-use.

One thing you quickly learn after moving to Canada is that you better bring reusable bags with you when you grocery shop, because you will never get a plastic bag for your groceries at the checkout. While some cities and states in the US ban plastic bags (e.g. Oregon, California), in Canada the ban on single-use plastics is nationwide.

When I lived in Florida, despite my good intentions and best efforts to bring reusable bags to the grocery store for my shopping, (a) I felt like single-use plastic bags were always being forced upon me at the checkout – if I didn’t move quickly to place my reusable bags at the end of the bagging belt and point them out, the friendly and eager Publix employees would rush to pack my groceries into as many plastic bags as possible; and (b) if I forgot my reusable bags, there was no consequence, and the plastic bags would just keep piling up in my “bag of bags” in the pantry.

In Canada, on the other hand, if you forget to bring your reusable bags with you when you go grocery shopping, you quickly learn your lesson, since you end up either carrying home your groceries in your hands, or having to buy a reusable bag on the spot. It forces you to get into the habit of always carrying a small cloth bag with you (easily rolled up in your purse), and remembering to bring larger carrier bags before heading out for a big shop.

But it’s not just the plastic bags. Other single-use plastics are also banned, like plastic knives, forks, and spoons; plastic cups; plastic stir sticks; and polystyrene food containers. It’s part of the government’s effort to reduce plastic waste.

When you go to a café, counter-serve, or fast-food restaurant, you will usually be given either metal cutlery to eat with, or wooden bio-degradable forks. Aside from being more environmentally friendly, it also improves the dining experience to eat using “real” utensils. I noticed when we went back to Florida to visit and ate at counter serve places, even if the order was for dine-in, you would always get plastic cutlery, along with a fat pile of napkins.

But it’s not only at restaurants that you notice the difference. Also in the grocery store, when you buy bread, the bread bag is sealed shut with a cardboard closure, instead of those little plastic tags on bread in the US. You also can’t buy plastic cutlery or plates at the grocery store, if you’re hosting a barbecue – the cutlery will be made from wood, and the plates will be paper.

Overall, I definitely feel I have a lower carbon footprint here. First and foremost, my city-living lifestyle enables me to get around by foot, bike, and public transport and I have gone carless. And thanks to the plastics ban, reusable bags have become my modus operandi, so my closet still has a “bag of bags,” but they are now cloth instead of plastic. I’ve also started reusing glass jars for food storage in lieu of plastic Tupperware or Ziploc bags. I even began composting recently, as the city offers as a composting service – there is a trash pickup, a recycling pickup, and a compost pickup.