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VANCOUVER — In what’s believed to be a first for Canada, Vancouver has approved a ban on the use of plastic drinking straws and foam cups and containers by June 2019.

City council approved the ban, plus a suite of other measures to reduce single-use items, late Wednesday after hearing from staff that cups and take-out containers make up 50 per cent of items collected in public trash bins. Plastic straws are not easily recycled and can harm animals if ingested, council was told.

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“This is a really important step forward to demonstrate how serious we are in phasing out plastic waste,” Mayor Gregor Robertson told council before the vote.

The June 2019 implementation date is six months ahead of what staff had initially proposed.