As Canada considers ban on plastic produce labels, this company makes paper and compostable ones

With his four-year-old son in mind at the time, Joe Sleiman says he knew more than 20 years ago he didn't want to manufacture plastic produce labels.

The president of Accu-Label in Lakeshore, Ont., began designing paper stickers in the late 1990s, with the company opening in 2001.

"I spent a couple of years researching, and I came back and I said to the guys locally in the Leamington area, 'We've got to go paper. My son is four years old. I do not want him biting into a piece of fruit and accidentally eating plastic. It's just not going to happen.'"

Now, the business on the outskirts of Windsor in southwestern Ontario prints billions of labels each year, and has nearly 400 customers across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

In a published regulatory paper, which is currently open for public comment until Thursday, the federal government is proposing new rules that include all Price Look-Up (PLU) produce stickers be required to be compostable — prohibiting non-compostable plastic produce stickers. Drafted regulations are expected to be published by the end of 2023.

Environment and Climate Change Canada said in an emailed statement to CBC News that while PLU produce stickers may appear "small and insignificant," collectively they can amount to a large number of contaminants. 

"Sorting of the stickers at organics processing facilities is time, labour and cost intensive — and may result in the diversion of food waste contaminated with PLU stickers to landfills where it will generate methane emissions," the statement said. 

"Moreover, the presence of plastic in finished compost, when applied to land, has the potential to contribute to microplastics in the environment."

No matter the location, Neil Scott says the first thing he does when he's out grocery shopping is check to find his company's labels.

Scott is a printer at Accu-Label and has worked there for 18 years.

"Whether it's somewhere local or somewhere a bit further afield, you always see our label."

According to Scott, working on paper provides better imagining and print quality.

He also said it's "better for the environment."

"They [sticker labels] will always be needed because produce is a big chunk of the consumer, you know, that goes into the grocery stores. Everybody buys fruit and vegetables. So they'll always be needed to determine the PLU, the customer's logo, and so on and so forth."