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Imagine a world without takeout coffee cups or plastic utensils.

While concerns over the environment remain high in the public consciousness, most Canadians are still used to grabbing non-recyclable food containers and coffee cups on their way to work and purchasing products that come with an excessive amount of plastic packaging.

But brewing discontent over the amount of waste such packaging produces, and its burden on the environment, is putting new pressure on industry to reduce or eliminate the use of plastic.A national task force of the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment is in the process of creating a cross-country strategy for reduction of packaging from consumer goods. Some retailers across Canada have begun voluntarily eliminating packaging from their stores whenever possible. Several cities, notably London, Ont., are considering or imposing restrictions on sales of plastic water bottles at municipal facilities. And last week, Toronto city council said it's prepared to consider a variety of measures, from making manufacturers pay for recycling some products to an outright ban on fast food and other wasteful consumer packaging.

"This is one part of a bigger picture of 'how do we stop consuming ourselves to death?' " said Glenn De Baeremaeker, chairman of Toronto's public works and infrastructure committee. "We have to stop living in a throwaway society."

However, environmental experts and advocates say move toward a serious reduction in waste from packaging will happen only if consumers are willing to alter their behaviour. People have become so accustomed to making choices based on convenience, rather than environmental impact, that any change will require a concerted effort by a large segment of society, said environmental advocate Jay Sinha, who avoids plastic whenever possible.

Mr. Sinha and his wife, who live in Wakefield, Que., founded a business, Life Without Plastic, about five years ago after their son was born because they were worried about potential health consequences from using plastic bottles.

Mr. Sinha said the public response has been enthusiastic, particularly in the past year, after heightened attention to the presence of the potentially harmful substance bisphenol A in baby bottles and other consumer products.

"It's becoming easier and easier [to avoid plastic], but it does take a conscious shift," he said. "People are in a hurry. They want to get to work, they want to get home. Unless you're really consciously thinking about making a change, it's really easy just to grab a coffee. It takes less time, it's more convenient."

Canada has a major plastics industry that generated shipments of products worth nearly $20-billion in 2007, according to Industry Canada. Of that, plastic bottles comprised $830-million worth of shipments. About 34 per cent of plastics produced in Canada go toward packaging, while 18 per cent goes to the automotive sector.

While other countries have already taken significant steps to reduce waste from consumer products, Canada has lagged in major efforts to wean industries and consumers off excessive amounts of plastic packaging. For instance, many companies operating in the European Union must contribute toward the cost of recycling, creating an incentive for them to package more efficiently.

However, the backlash against packaging on consumer products is growing in Canada. Plastic bags and, more recently, plastic water bottles, have been widely criticized by environmental organizations and a growing number of politicians as wasteful and unnecessary, and the movement to curb the use of plastic packaging has also picked up steam.

The issue reached a boiling point in Toronto this month after city council declared it was considering a ban on many common restaurant takeout containers as a way to cut down on waste.

But the possibility of a ban or restrictions raises questions about whether consumers can break their reliance on non-recyclable coffee cups and disposable takeout containers. Some major chains, such as Tim Hortons, use coffee cups with a wax lining that makes them difficult to recycle under conventional methods, except for in a handful of cities including Windsor, Ont. and Moncton, N.B., where facilities exist. And while other takeout food and beverage containers can be put in blue boxes for recycling, environmentalists say they are still wasteful because it takes energy to produce them, and some people don't recycle.

The plastics industry argues that the majority of plastic packaging can be recycled and does not create a significant burden on the environment. The Environment and Plastics Industry Council, which represents the industry, said that packaging is necessary to prevent contamination or spread of bacteria in foods and that industry has taken major steps to reduce its impact on the environment in recent years.

"To me, the balance is industry's got to make efficient packaging that uses as little resources as possible to get [products] to you and industry has to provide recycling solutions, because you just can't get rid of this packaging," said Joe Hruska, the council's municipal relations manager.

But consumers are not demanding plastic, said Pierre Sadik, senior policy adviser with the David Suzuki Foundation.

"Plastic and over-packaging is driven by manufacturers, and to some extent retailers, as part of a marketing ploy," he said.

Moves to restrict or ban plastic packaging will force Canadians to give up some of the modern conveniences that many have come to take for granted as part of the North American lifestyle.

But Mr. Sadik said the growing consumer backlash against the use of plastic bags shows that people are willing to make sacrifices in order to help the environment.

"These things change very quickly, I'd say almost overnight," he said. "Consumers become used to the new way of doing things very quickly."

By the numbers

Canada produces about 2 per cent of the world's plastic and the industry employed more than 92,000 people in 2007, according to Industry Canada. Consumer packaging accounts for a large portion of the plastic produced in Canada. The following shows the value of shipments generated by the production of certain plastics in Canada in 2007:

$1.9-billion

Plastic bags

$1.7-billion

Plastic film and sheet (e.g. plastic packaging film, photographic and X-ray plastic sheets, acrylic film)

$830-million

Plastic bottles

$820-million

Polystyrene foam products

(e.g. coffee cups, foam egg

cartons, meat trays, takeout food containers)

Carly Weeks