Justice Angela Furlanetto ruled that Ottawa’s attempt to label plastic manufactured items as toxic was too broad under federal law.

The Federal Court has rejected a cabinet order that classified plastic manufactured items (PMI) as toxic. The judge described the order as “unreasonable and unconstitutional.”

On Nov. 16, Justice Angela Furlanetto ruled that the categorization of PMI is too broad for a blanket toxicity label under federal law. “There is no reasonable apprehension that all listed PMI are harmful,” she wrote.

The case was initiated by the Responsible Plastics Use Coalition, a non-profit corporation representing companies in the plastic industry operating in Canada. Companies such as Dow Chemical, Imperial Oil, and Nova Chemicals, among others, contended that Ottawa did not adequately demonstrate sufficient scientific evidence to justify the proposed regulations.