Essex County council is lending its support to a resolution from the Windsor-Essex County Environment Committee calling on the federal government to make a number of changes when it comes to single-use plastics.
The resolution includes several requests such as the establishment of a comprehensive plan to address the growing problem of plastic pollution and the banning of single-use items like checkout bags, stir sticks, cutlery and straws.
Essex-Windsor Solid Waste Authority General Manager Michelle Bishop says the community should think twice before using single-use plastics.
"I think we all know that single-use plastics are an issue," says Bishop. "They don't break down. They're made of fossil fuels, they're artificial. The earth just doesn't digest them. They break into pieces, but they really never go away."
She says plastics cause major headaches at the recycling centre.
"Single-use plastics have been a source of contamination," she says. "They are problematic. If you picture your vacuum beater bar, if you get hair and fibres in that bar and you have to continuously stop the line and cut those out, that's what plastic bags do to our system."
Bishop adds most recycling operations aren't equipped to handle plastics.
"Straws, cutlery, things of that material, they can't be processed in our current facilities and there's no end markets for them," says Bishop. "So from a solid waste authority standpoint, we would certainly support for the federal government to look at putting bans or limitations on this type of material."
The City of Windsor has also endorsed the resolution which will now be forwarded to the federal government for consideration.
It's estimated as many as 8,000 tonnes of plastic waste ends up in Canadian landfills, incinerators or the natural environment each day.