Episode #45: The single-use plastic legislation: Is ban starting a shifting conversation?

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Episode #45: Podcast Show Notes

Introduction

If you have been in contact with single-use plastic items, and even use some of them along your value chain, this episode is for you!

Today’s textbook case is none other than the single-use plastic legislation! 

Boring? Not at all if you sharpen your pencils well, now that the schools go back after summer. Let’s come back together with sensitive rules and critical thinking to be able to read between the lines!

How will we do that in this episode? Be ready to learn,

• first, about the important role of legislation countering the inaction triangle,

• secondly, about the worldwide context of this single-use plastic legislation,

• and finally, about the 3 reasons why you shouldn’t make single-use plastic bans your new hobby horse… with a Canadian regulation as an exemplifying case study. The 3 points are:

1. What are we talking about?

2. Where does it happen?

3. What if we shift the conversation to solutions?

The ice on the cake? As a revision sheet, you will have some past referral episodes and a promo code for our “Develop Circular Packaging Solutions” online training… that might be helpful to set off decision processes to address those kinds of legislation and take the lead!

Links to resources mentioned in the episode

• We invite you to (re)listen to other episodes among others. Here they are in the order mentioned in this episode:

  • Episode #34: “Designing plastic free: Why and what does it take?” with Sian Sutherland of A Plastic Planet: https://www.look4loops.com/packaging-podcast/ep34-plastic-free-material-design-campaigns-platform

  • Episodes about materials: 37 about plastics, 39 about bioplastics and 41 about mass balance (which are all part of our Wild Waste Audio Clips Series) + Tipa (ep. 38), Lactips (ep. 40), Notpla (ep. 21) and Ecovative Design (ep. 20).

  • Episodes about reuse: 6 with Loop, 8 with Freddy met Curry, 9 with LaSemo, 10 with L’Empoteuse, 24 with Re:Dish, 30 with Returnity, 36 with Reseau Vrac and Yokoumi, and more to come.

  • Episode #12: “When cups initiate a reusable ecosystem to take the waste out of takeout” with Cody Irwin of ShareWares: https://www.look4loops.com/packaging-podcast/ep12-reusable-cup-takeout

• Plastic waste in the United States - statistics & facts from Statista: https://www.statista.com/topics/5127/plastic-waste-in-the-united-states/#topicOverview

• The European Commission page about single-use plastic products (SUPs): https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics/single-use-plastics_en

• The humoristic video (from the European Commission) to discover the inconvenient truth about single-use plastics: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/topics/plastics/single-use-plastics/eu-restrictions-certain-single-use-plastics_en#

• The French AGEC law (la loi Anti-Gaspillage pour une Economie Circulaire): https://www.ecologie.gouv.fr/loi-anti-gaspillage-economie-circulaire

• “Historic day in the campaign to beat plastic pollution: Nations commit to developing a legally binding agreement”, United Nations Environment Programme (March 2, 2022): online here: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/historic-day-campaign-beat-plastic-pollution-nations-commit-develop

• The “Single-use Plastic Prohibition Regulations (SUPPR)” published by the Canadian federal government: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2022-138/

• Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations - Technical guidelines from Government of Canada: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/managing-reducing-waste/reduce-plastic-waste/single-use-plastic-technical-guidance.html

• Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SOR/2022-138) on the Justice Laws Website of the Government of Canada: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-2022-138/

• The Single-Use and Plastic Waste Prevention Regulation in BC: www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/oic/oic_cur/0461_2023

• More information on plastic waste prevention in B.C.: www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content?id=4729A52504704E94A74FC690C907D7F9

• Article “The 3 high stakes to drive circular packaging solutions. A Franco-Canadian perspective” by Anne-Laure Bulliffon and Colienne Regout: https://circulab.com/high-stakes-to-drive-circular-packaging-solutions/

• The Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment: https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/plastics/overview

• The website of “Paris, a city without single-use plastic by 2024” https://www.paris.fr/pages/paris-ville-sans-plastique-jetable-d-ici-2024-6931

• The grant “Plastics challenge: Advancing Reuse to Replace Single-Use Plastics” opened from September 12th to October 24th 2023 by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC): See https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/innovative-solutions-canada/en/plastics-challenge-advancing-reuse-replace-single-use-plastics

• The Look4Loops interactive workshops: https://www.look4loops.com/workshops

• The direct link to the “Develop circular packaging solutions” online training, created by Look4Loops with the support of the Circulab Academy: https://circulab.academy/courses/develop-circular-economy-packaging/

Where to find Colienne?

• Look4Loops, creating circular value: https://www.look4loops.com/services 

• Colienne’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colienneregout/en

About Colienne Regout from Look4Loops

Businesses lead the way! As a true believer, Colienne Regout makes you rethink your packaging so you can adapt to future markets and spot business opportunities. Colienne helps organizations to improve their economic, social, and ecological impacts in Europe and Canada by optimizing the use of their resources and designing out the concept of waste. She started with facilitating Corporate Social Responsibility and with implementing Sharing Economy initiatives. As the founder of Look4Loops, she is now using the Circular Economy to enhance processes from the beginning until the end of their life cycles. 

Besides operating changes in the field, education is a big part of what Colienne does: She is the host of this podcast, she created the ‘Develop Circular Packaging Solutions’ training, she sub-teaches at BCIT and she also facilitates workshops and serious games about climate change and the circular economy.  

As a Circulab certified consultant, she benefits from shared knowledge and co-developed tools thanks to a community of over seventy worldwide colleagues.

Colienne also won the 2022 Business of the Year award «La Palme Bleue» from la Chambre de Commerce Francophone de Vancouver.

Podcast music

Special thanks to Joachim Regout who made the jingle. Have a look at his work here.

I am happy to bring a sample of our strong bonds on these sound waves. Since I was a child, he made me discover a wide range of music of all kinds. I am also delighted he is a nature lover and shares the Look4Loops 'out of the box philosophy'. He is an inspiring source of creativity for me.