Working together, the City of Terrebonne and Town of Mascouche, Quebec, just outside Montreal, have shown leadership in tackling waste in Canada. 

The first in Canada, since March 2023, these municipalities have a local bylaw that requires all restaurants to use reusable dishes for dine-in orders in their restaurants.

The municipalities have worked together on regulations that ban a number of single-use items.

• Restaurants must provide reusable cups and foodware for dine-in orders
• Ban on many single-use plastic items including those labelled ‘compostable’
• Restaurants must accept customer-supplied containers (BYO)

Businesses were given six months to September 2023 to adapt to the regulations, and in July 2024, a staff report showed that almost all businesses were in compliance and had reusable dishes for dine-in.

More information:

This Montreal suburb requires businesses to use reusable tableware. It wants others to follow suit - CBC

Règlement sur la distribution d'objets à usage unique - Ville de Terrebonne (French)

Règlement 1308 regissant la distribution d'objets à usage unique - Mascouche  (French)