Get your metal straws and tote bags ready, because the age of single-use plastic items is coming to an end in Canada as the federal government rolls out its long-anticipated plan to ban disposable plastic items like bags, cutlery, and containers. 

What happened: Canada is taking a phased approach to the ban, first forbidding the import and production of plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers by the end of this year. 

• Businesses have till the end of 2023 to make the transition to non-plastics and use up all their existing stock—after that consumers won’t be able to get a plastic bag (even if you’re willing to pay that ten-cent fee).

Production of plastic straws, cutlery, stir sticks, and carrier rings for cans and bottles must stop by June 2023 with sales halting by June 2024.

Why it matters: Canadians use ~15.5 billion plastic checkout bags every year, most of which end up either in landfills or as litter. Banning them and other single-use plastics will go a long way to reaching the country’s goal of generating net-zero plastic waste by 2030—an accomplishment that could save $500 million in annual costs and create 42,000 new jobs in the recycling industry. 

• PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland have all banned plastic bags for several years and have reported promising results. One PEI waste collection company said before the ban it was collecting 15-16 million plastic bags per year—that number is now virtually zero. 

Yes, but: Soggy straws aren’t the only consequence of the plastic ban: the plastic products industry, which is worth $25 billion a year, accounts for over 5% of sales in the manufacturing sector, and employs 93,000 people, stands to lose big from the ban.

Bottom line: Banning single-use plastics has the potential for a positive environmental impact but it won’t come without sacrifices for existing producers. 

First, it was beaches and pools running short on lifeguards. Now, another flagship job of ‘80s teen comedy protagonists is facing a shortage, as Canadian summer camps struggle to find enough camp counsellors to meet the end-of-school-year rush. 

What happened: With pandemic-era restrictions lifted, summer camps were ready to bounce back after two lost years. The Canadian Camping Association reported registration numbers that were besting even some pre-pandemic years and some camps reported wait lists of over 200 people. 

But being shut down for so long created an unexpected long-term impact: Not enough counsellors to supervise the hordes of children looking to enjoy the best summer ever.  

• Former campers returning as counsellors has historically been a key source of employees for summer camps, but this pipeline dried up during the pandemic with two consecutive cohorts of potential campers-turned-counsellors finding work elsewhere. 

The tight labour market isn’t helping either. Other businesses that rely on labourers in their late teens and early twenties (like restaurants and retailers) are also facing shortages, giving potential counsellors (perhaps tempted by paycheques without room and board deductions)  more job options than ever.

Why it matters: Not even the beloved summer camp can escape the forces of supply and demand. Fewer counsellors mean fewer spots for campers and higher prices across the board, not to mention plenty of disappointment for parents nationwide who just want some peace and quiet.

In case you thought you were the only one frantically Googling “recession” late at night when you should be sleeping, searches for the term have increased steadily since the end of May. They’re projected to at least match the last big spike for searches, which happened back in the middle of March 2020.

Running low on natural gas imported from Russia, European countries are turning to coal in a bid to lower energy prices and avoid shortages.

What happened: Multiple European governments said they would increase coal usage to make up for energy shortfalls created when Russia cut capacity on the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline by 60% last week. 

• Germany and Austria both plan to re-open shuttered coal plants and the Netherlands plans to loosen rules that limit how much coal plants can burn.

Prior to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, around 40% of gas used by the European Union (EU) came from Russia. That share is falling quickly, along with the EU’s overall gas consumption (down 9% in the first quarter of the year), but governments still anticipate energy shortages and high prices will last for years. 

Zoom out: A return to coal, which emits twice as much CO2 as natural gas, is bad news for the EU’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050—hitting that target would require phasing out coal altogether by 2030, according to one model.

• EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen urged European governments to invest heavily in renewables to make up for gas shortages, but wind and solar take time to build and with European gas prices rising 50% in the past week, leaders are scrambling for shorter-term answers.

Bottom line: Europe’s energy crisis highlights the difficulties posed by the transition off of fossil fuels—without clean energy sources in place to fill the gap, shortfalls in fossil fuel supplies are driving prices higher than governments and voters will tolerate.

🤝 80. Percentage of Canadian employers who would consider hiring someone without the relevant education or experience for a position, per a new Censuswide study—the scourge of “at least five years relevant experience” tags on job postings might be coming to an end.

💬 ~700 million. Number of monthly active users encrypted messaging app Telegram has—it’s looking to make some money off of this large user base by rolling out a premium tier that will allow for more chatting from multiple accounts. 

🏒 $14 million. Amount of federal funding Hockey Canada received in 2020 and 2021, per CBC News findings—a larger-than-expected sum that has led to calls for financial transparency on what exactly the money was spent on. 

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• Long read: A Google contractor claims members of an obscure religious cult are more or less running the company’s Developer Studio. Here’s the original New York Times deep dive (paywalled) and the (free) summary from The Verge.