The prohibition of single-use plastic products is crucial to , but with the ban, environmentalists are growing increasingly concerned about the amount of paper packaging being used in its place.
"We absolutely need to shift away from using plastics as much as we do, but trading in plastic pollution for deforestation and forest degradation is not the answer," Canopy founder and executive director Nicole Rycroft told CTV News. "We really need to make sure we do not create another environmental disaster."
Rycroft's works to protect the world's forests by helping companies like Walmart and H&M ensure their packaging doesn't rely on paper and is environmentally friendly.
She estimates more than three billion trees—many of which are old-growth and endangered—are logged every year to make paper-based products like bags, straws and food containers.
"We're seeing a surge in global bans on single-use plastics, including here in Canada, and with paper quickly replacing those products, there's increased pressure on the world's forests."
Canada's ban on single-use plastics, which began in December 2022, prohibits the manufacturing and import-for-sale of products ranging from checkout bags and cutlery to takeout containers and stir sticks.
With the ban, single-use plastic consumption is starting to wane, but in many cases those products have been replaced by paper alternatives. Rycroft points to grocery stores, now providing paper bags at checkout, as an example of that.
"I think everyone is aware of the saying that forests are the lungs of our planet and so this is a really critical moment and we need to take steps to keep forests standing, rather than increase the pressures on them to provide the fibre for bags, pizza boxes, cutlery and straws."
Adding to the worries of increased deforestation are concerns about the large amounts of energy and water required to make paper products.
says it can take anywhere from two to 13 litres of water to make a standard piece of paper.
Another potential problem with single-use paper products is the detrimental impact they have when they end up in landfills.
"There's an assumption that paper by virtue of being a natural product is going to be better, but if it ends up in a landfill it can be a real issue," York University environmental and urban change researcher, Calvin Lakhan said.
Lakhan is an expert in waste management, and the co-found of , which is a project that "attempts to bridge the gap between academia, industry and government in issues surrounding waste."
While paper is more biodegradable and is easier to recycle than plastic, he notes the grade of the paper often dictates whether or not it can enter the recycling system.
"Things like newsprint can be readily recycled, but certain products like the bags you might get from McDonald's, are not going to be able to be reprocessed and sorted the same way since they are a lower grade of paper."
Lakhan adds despite the fact paper can break down in a landfill, the decomposition process releases greenhouse gases, which he argues counteracts the benefits of its use.
"When paper, or any organic material ends up in our landfill and decomposes, methane is released, which is so much worse for the environment."
While paper isn't perfect, the industry is working on innovative solutions, including using agricultural waste, or other plant material like straw to make pulp.
In Canada, there are , but after the grain is harvested, farmers are left with straw stalks stuck in their fields. While the material has traditionally been considered waste, Rycoft says some companies are trying to give it new life by turning it into single-use packaging.
Straw, along with hemp, flax, tomato stems and banana peels are being used to make sustainable single-use products.
"Next-gen products made from things like straw is already mainstream in places like China and India," Rycroft said. "There's opportunity for Canada to follow suit and to become a leader in low carbon next-gen packaging."
There are also biodegradable resins that are being used to make bags and food service ware. The challenge with these new innovations, however, is that many are expensive to produce and often only have niche applications.
With that, Lakhan says it is essential waste policies and procedures continue to transition away from "a single-use model irrespective of whether it be paper or plastic."
Adding to that, he encourages consumers to explore what they can do to make a difference, particularly opting for reusable packaging when possible.
"If consumers rethink and reorient themselves towards a reusable mind frame that will ultimately lead to the most sustainable outcomes."
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
Shamattawa RCMP are searching for a missing six-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen since Wednesday morning.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
CTV News has learned there are multiple Canadian women alleging they were victims of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Harrods boss Mohamed Al Fayed.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
Shohei Ohtani became the first major league player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers star going deep twice to reach the half-century mark and swiping two bags to get to 51 against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault is calling on the Bloc Quebecois to topple the Trudeau government next Wednesday and trigger a federal election.
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has lost 205 firearms since 2020, including more than 120 handguns and at least five fully automatic weapons like machine-guns.
The lawyer for a B.C. RCMP officer convicted of obstruction for telling a witness to delete cellphone video following the violent 2017 arrest of Dale Culver has requested a stay of proceedings.
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A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.
Israel warned U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
A 22-year-old woman who became an abortion rights advocate after she was raped by her stepfather as a child tells her story in a new campaign ad for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
South Korea’s government, western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led by The Associated Press found.
Israeli security services said on Thursday they had arrested an Israeli citizen on suspicion of involvement in an Iranian-backed assassination plot targeting prominent people including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Lebanese authorities on Thursday banned walkie-talkies and pagers from being taken on flights from Beirut airport, the National News Agency reported, after thousands of such devices exploded during a deadly attack on Hezbollah this week.
NASA scientists have successfully replicated spider-like shapes found on the surface of Mars in a laboratory setting for the first time.
Lawyers representing the producers of 'Russians at War' say they may pursue legal action against Ontario's public broadcaster for pulling support for the controversial documentary amid outcry from the Ukrainian community and some Canadian politicians.
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Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
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Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
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The Parole Board of Canada says a man who assaulted a young pregnant woman and left her for dead remains too dangerous to be released into the community.
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Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.
A social media post of purple apples “growing†in Saskatchewan has sparked a lot of attention. However, garden experts say there's no such thing.
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A union representative says someone driving a pick-up truck with heavily tinted windows rammed a member on Western Road, near Elborn College.
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A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
A Lethbridge couple got a good reminder as to why you should keep your vehicle doors locked at all times.
Lethbridge residents who live near the police range can expect to hear plenty of shots fired Wednesday and Thursday.
A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
North Bay Police Service says one person has died following an industrial accident at the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission Rail Yard on Tuesday.
Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
Newfoundland and Labrador's chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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