Environmental groups press Ottawa to add cups, bottles and lids to plastics ban
Volunteers reporting huge drops in plastic bags want the federal ban expanded to include coffee cups, lids and bottles, and for stronger enforcement and deposit returns.
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By Torontoer Staff
Environmental groups and volunteer cleanup crews are urging the federal government to widen its single-use plastics ban to include items they say keep showing up in ravines and waterways: coffee cups, lids, and plastic bottles. Their appeal follows a Federal Court of Appeal decision that upheld Ottawa’s ability to list plastic manufactured items as toxic, allowing the current ban on six single-use items to remain in place.
Volunteers say the existing measures already produced measurable results, and they want the next step to target the everyday items that remain most visible in cleanups. They are also pushing for stronger enforcement and deposit return systems for bottles and cups.
What volunteers are finding on Toronto’s waterways
Lawrence Warriner, president of community group Don’t Mess with the Don, catalogues thousands of lids and cups pulled from the Don River and nearby ravines. He stores the collected waste inside a shipping container next to a grocery store parking lot, in bags stacked by material type.
Plastics are probably 90 per cent of what we pick up.
Lawrence Warriner, Don’t Mess with the Don
Warriner says coffee and hot chocolate lids, iced coffee cups and other single-use containers dominate their hauls. He points to recent floods that washed thousands of water bottles downstream as evidence that these items remain a persistent source of pollution and will keep breaking down in the environment if not addressed.
Ban effects so far: fewer bags, more focus on cups and bottles
Volunteer groups across Ontario report a dramatic decline in plastic bags since the federal ban started rolling out. Cleanup organisers say that shift shows regulation can change what ends up in urban green spaces and waterways.
When the decision was made to ban plastic bags, the bag count that we would find in the cleanup dropped by 99 per cent.
Lawrence Warriner
Rochelle Byrne, founder of shoreline initiative A Greener Future, said volunteers’ data show fewer plastic bags, utensils and straws, while cups and bottles remain abundant. She called for policies that address those remaining, high-volume items.
What the court decision means
On Friday the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously overturned a 2023 Federal Court ruling and allowed Ottawa to proceed with listing plastic manufactured items as toxic. That legal designation keeps the government’s six-item single-use plastics ban in force.
- Plastic bags
- Plastic straws
- Stir sticks
- Cutlery
- Six-pack rings
- Certain types of takeout containers
Experts cited by environmental groups point to emerging health concerns tied to microscopic plastic particles, and say the ruling gives governments authority to take further measures to tackle plastic pollution.
Increasingly microscopic plastic particles are being absorbed by human bodies and recent science shows that all of us have detectable levels of plastic inside of us.
Rick Smith, Canadian Climate Institute
Proposed next steps from environmental groups
Environmental Defence and other advocates are calling for the government to add more single-use items to the list, and to build reuse and return systems for commonly littered products. They say takeout cups and lids are a clear target for reusable models and deposit returns.
Takeout cups and lids are a real menace, and there’s an obvious solution to them which is reusable systems. If companies would work together on a takeout cup that we all could use, pay a deposit, return it anywhere... the companies get them back, wash them out and reuse them.
Karen Wirsig, Environmental Defence
Byrne singled out plastic bottles and coffee to-go cups as items she would like removed from circulation, but acknowledged practical challenges for businesses that rely on them. Advocates say financial penalties and clearer communication to businesses would help phase out products still being imported or sold in contravention of the ban.
Government response and politics
Federal Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin celebrated the court decision while stopping short of promising immediate new restrictions. She described the ruling as clearing the argument over whether plastic waste is a problem that the government can act on, and pointed to circular economy approaches as part of next steps.
Conservative environment critic Ellis Ross criticised the ban earlier in the week, saying it would make life more expensive. The Responsible Plastic Use Coalition said it was reviewing the decision and considering legal options.
Practical tools advocates want next
Advocates are pushing for concrete measures that could be implemented provincially or federally. A common ask is an expanded deposit return program in Ontario to capture pop, water cans and bottles, which volunteers say would remove one of the most common pollution sources before plastic breakdown begins.
Warriner called return systems a practical step for the items he sees most often in cleanups and said addressing those 'low-hanging fruit' would have a large environmental payoff.
Getting a responsible system for those low-hanging fruit of cans and water bottles would be humongous for the environment.
Lawrence Warriner
Environmental groups say further regulation, stronger enforcement and investments in reuse infrastructure could reduce the plastic waste that volunteers continue to pull from rivers and shorelines across Ontario.
The court decision keeps the current ban intact and gives Ottawa the legal room to pursue broader measures. For volunteers who spend long days collecting lids and cups, the question now is whether federal and provincial governments will follow with the next set of policies they say are needed.
plastic banenvironmentsingle-use plasticsTorontorecycling
