And one new regulation that has become law since 2010 is the banning of single use plastics. That means no manufacturing, importing, or storing the illegal product. But is it being enforced? You'll likely notice that if you go into a supermarket right now, you'll get a plastic bag, and there are restaurants still using styrofoam containers.
Well, the Chief Environmental Officer says they're working on it, but first they need the proper documentation before they go around charging the offenders.
Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer
"We're still waiting, we haven't really honed in on the exact coming that is brining it in illegally but we're still conducting our investigation, in terms of the overall activities that we are doing with regards to the assessment, we have collected samples of registered biodegradable product countrywide, I think this week we will send those out to a laboratory in the United States to get tested and then when we get back the results, we will be able to determine if the biodegradable products that are being implemented are really biodegradable and they meet our national standards so that will be the first step. We're also doing a market surveillance and we're grabbing samples of some of the products to be tested, the market surveillance is still not completed, when it's completed it will give us a good picture of what is in the market, the restricted products and some of the prohibited products that are still available so we're still seeing some prohibited products and then we'll develop a plan on how to deal with this."
Courtney Menzies:
"When does the department start cracking down on these everyday stores because you go to the shop right now and they give you a plastic bag, when do you start cracking down on these stores?"
Anthony Mai, Chief Environmental Officer
"As soon as we get the information that we're looking for, we'll be in a better position to determine what is exactly in the market and then put actions and measures in place to attack it. Once of the concern right now that we have is if we take a product off the shelf and we say okay I'm going to charge you because this is illegal, we need to have documentation, we need to have proof, that this is actually a prohibited item, that is the procedure that we're trying to establish. So it's similar to the police department, if the police department goes out and find a controlled substance, they need to test it to show that it is one of these controlled substances, it's the same thing with the prohibited items, we need to ensure that yes, this is a styrofoam product, we need to have documentation to prove that in court if we are to charge anybody."
