B.C., federal and municipal plastic regulations

All levels of government are taking action on plastics. B.C.'s Single-Use and Plastic Waste Prevention Regulation aligns with, and builds upon federal and municipal regulations. Find out more about regulations in your area.

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Provincial regulation

Many people living in British Columbia are concerned about plastic waste.

In 2019, the Province shared the CleanBC Plastics Action Plan (1.4MB). This outlined our commitment to:

• Phasing out single-use plastics
• Transitioning to a circular economy

In April 2022, the Province released the Preventing Single-Use and Plastic Waste in British Columbia Intentions Paper (PDF, 1.3KB), outlining the proposed provincial regulation.

In response to feedback, we then introduced B.C.’s Single-Use and Plastic Waste Prevention Regulation.

Learn more about how regulations are being phased in together by continuing reading or downloading overview federal and provincial of single-use plastic regulations 2023 to 2030 (PDF, 373KB)

• Review the translated overview of federal and political single-use plastic regulations 繁體中文, 简体中文, Français,ਪੰਜਾਬੀ and Tagalog

Federal regulations

In June 2022, the Government of Canada published the Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations. These ban the manufacture, import, sale and export of several single-use items, including:

• Plastic checkout bags
• Cutlery and stir sticks
• Straws
• Ring carriers
• Food service ware made from problematic plastics

You can review the federal overview of Single-use Plastics Prohibition Regulations for implementation timelines. 

B.C.’s regulation aligns with the federal rules to further reduce plastic waste and support the use of reusable options.

Municipal bylaws

The B.C. government has given municipalities the authority to create single-use bylaws for the same single-use and plastic items that are under the provincial regulation. These items include:

• Shopping bags
• Food service accessories
• Food service ware
• Oxo-degradable plastics

This allows municipalities to take action to address plastic waste at a local level and provide consistent information on reducing waste from single-use and plastic items. This also gives municipalities the ability to implement and enforce local single-use bylaws.

Today, the provincial regulation establishes minimum province-wide requirements for single-use items. Municipalities can set their own bylaws to address single-use and plastic waste in their communities. This may include stricter requirements than in the provincial regulation. 

Find out which municipalities have approved bylaws municipal bylaws for single-use plastics.