Working together to eliminate plastic waste and pollution in Canada
- Kiana Klassen
- Apr 1
- 5 min read
From flexible plastic bags to single-use jugs, plastics are completely embedded in our everyday lives. This pervasiveness has led to plastic waste ending up in our landfills, oceans, and bodies — a problem that can’t be stopped by one organization alone. Luckily, there’s a network for the job.
We spoke with Cher Mereweather, Managing Director of the Canada Plastics Pact, about this organization’s collaborative efforts are keeping the right plastics in the economy and all plastics out of people, animals, and nature.
How does the Canada Plastics Pact (CPP) bring together diverse stakeholders to create a circular economy for plastics?
What attracts industry, associations, government, academia, and nonprofits to the Canada Plastics Pact is its vision: to eliminate plastic waste and pollution in Canada. We all know that no single organization or sector can solve the plastic crisis alone.
Plastics are ubiquitous, complex, and completely embedded in our value chains. Eliminating plastic waste and pollution presents significant challenges, including complex material design, insufficient reuse and recycling infrastructure, limited end markets for recycled materials, and the lack of harmonized approaches across Canada. To solve these challenges, it will require a mobilization of leaders and experts across sectors — that’s where the CPP steps in.
Take, for example, the challenges surrounding the recycling of film and flexible plastic packaging. Flexibles account for 41% of plastic packaging generated in Canada but only about 4% of it gets recycled. To address this issue, we established our Flexibles Working Group and brought together experts to lead it. In 2023, we released a shared action plan focused on addressing the complexities of flexible plastic packaging and outlined the steps needed.
Through this work, a key challenge identified with flexible packaging is the use of multi-layer materials. A typical flexible plastic package, such as a bag of nuts, can consist of up to nine different layers of material. Our Golden Design Rules for Plastics Packaging — nine design rules focused on improving the recyclability of plastic packaging — calls for moving to a single, or “mono-material.”
So, while it can still have multiple layers, they are all of the same material, making it easier to capture and recycle. We've shared guidance on how to make this transition, and in 2024, alongside the U.S. Plastics Pact, we co-hosted an exclusive knowledge series to identify innovative ways to address some of the technical challenges in transitioning to mono-material flexibles and films.
Our Flexibles Group is one of 10 Working Groups at the CPP bringing together diverse expertise to tackle the barriers and challenges in areas such as source reduction, packaging redesign, reuse systems, recycled content, policy and infrastructure, and data transparency, to name a few.
At CPP, our goals are ambitious because the stakes are high. With landfills overflowing, plastic gyres swirling in our oceans, and microplastics infiltrating the air, water, and our bodies, we need collective action, innovation, and collaboration.
Our hands-on approach ensures that Partners don’t just talk about solutions — they implement them. Being part of the Pact means committing to action and accountability. It’s about showing up to collaboratively create change, leveraging and learning from each partner’s strengths, and measuring progress transparently.
Can you share a success story where collaboration within the CPP led to measurable impact for reducing plastic waste?
When I joined the CPP in early 2023, the organization was starting to lay the foundational groundwork needed to build momentum. With several valuable tools and guides developed, there was also a growing need to deliver tangible, on-the-ground impact. To address this, we launched our Accelerators, starting with a focus on Reuse in early 2024.
This initiative identified existing reuse and refill solutions and brought together companies, investors, and government funding to scale them.
Partially funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada, this initiative invested in EcoTank Canada and Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) to expand bulk windshield washer dispensers across Ontario and Québec and Friendlier to scale reusable packaging at post-secondary education campuses in Ontario and British Columbia.
CTC and EcoTank’s source reduction initiative aims to significantly reduce the use of single-use windshield washer fluid jugs, which previously accounted for over 6 million units of plastic annually, or 800,000 kg of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic.
Every jug avoided through these dispensers not only reduces plastic waste but also Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fees, giving companies more incentive to cut plastic use and switch to reusable systems where it makes sense. With the support of CPP’s Reuse Accelerator, CTC will add another 20+ dispensers to Canadian Tire Gas+ gas bars in Ontario and Québec in 2024.
Meanwhile, Friendlier’s efforts to scale reusable packaging have already diverted more than 142,000 kg of plastic waste through the reuse of over 2.4 million food packages. They set out to convert 50% of southern Ontario campuses, but with the desire for reuse in other provinces, their scope has extended Canada-wide, with a goal to convert 10 additional campuses and to increase product offerings at locations where Friendlier is already operating.
How does the CPP align with global strategies for circularity in plastics?
The CPP is an active participant in the Plastics Pact Network, convened by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP). We are among 13 Plastics Pacts, which unites over 900 businesses, governments, and organizations to drive regional efforts to tackle plastic waste and pollution. The latest data from 2022 shows that the combined efforts of this network have prevented the use of over 2.2 million tonnes of virgin plastic, with some Pact countries tripling recycled content rates in plastic packaging.
Like every Pact, we have worked alongside our Partners to establish a national roadmap toward a circular economy for plastics. This includes providing knowledge and guidance, piloting and scaling innovative solutions to ensure the right plastics stay in the economy and all plastics stay out of people, animals, and nature.
While we’ve made significant strides within our region, tackling this global challenge requires collaboration across borders. Given our proximity to and close economic ties with the United States, we maintain strong alignment with the U.S. Plastics Pact. Looking ahead, we are planning to work with the U.S. Plastics Pact on initiatives focused on the elimination of unnecessary and problematic plastics to drive greater impact at scale in the North American market.
We have also worked with the Consumer Goods Forum’s Plastic Waste Coalition of Action on implementing a Canadianized version of the Golden Design Rules for Plastic Packaging.
Each Pact works to break down silos in their own regions and then brings the learnings to the network to advance our shared vision. Given the effectiveness of the Plastic Pact Network, we also see ourselves as being instrumental in the execution of the Global Plastics Treaty — an international agreement to address plastic pollution — once finalized.
Learn more: plasticspact.ca
Did you enjoy this blog? Keep an eye out for the full version being released soon in Circular Economy Magazine Vol. 1 by Sparx Publishing Group.