M-120 Plastic wastes

That:

(a) the House recognize that,

(i) the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes, and other wastes including electronic wastes, household wastes and plastic wastes, can be a means to avoid proper waste management at the expense of weaker economies, their people and their environment,

(ii) the Basel Convention to which Canada is an active Party, has made strides over the years to prevent and control unjust and unsustainable trade in wastes,

(iii) so far, Canada has failed to ratify Article 4a of the Basel Convention, also known as the Ban Amendment, which forbids the export of hazardous wastes to developing countries, and Canada is not compelled to abide by the Ban Amendment until it has ratified it,

(iv) Canada has not forbidden the export of Basel-controlled plastic wastes to developing countries, unlike counterparts in comparable jurisdictions such as the European Union,

(v) Canada has entered an arrangement with the United States meant to circumvent necessary transparency and control on plastic waste trade moving across the US/Canadian border, allowing Canadian operators to use non-Party US operators to avoid Basel controls when exporting plastic waste to developing countries,

(vi) the lack of proper transparency, controls, and prohibitions facilitate very linear waste trafficking, externalize real costs and harm to weaker economies, and benefit unscrupulous waste traders at the expense of human health and the environment; and

(b) in the opinion of the House, the government should,

(i) promote the immediate ratification of the Ban Amendment and include in its national implementation both Annex VIII and Annex II listings, including the plastic waste listing Y48 and the upcoming e-waste listing Y49,

(ii) rescind the 2020 Canada-USA Arrangement created to ignore the Basel Plastics Amendments adopted in 2019 for controlling trade in hazardous, mixed and contaminated plastic wastes between the two countries,

(iii) negotiate for policies within the new plastics treaty in the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee meeting and beyond, which will effectively reduce the amount of plastic that is produced globally starting with the most hazardous and inappropriate plastics first.