In 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the intention to reach zero plastic waste in Canada by 2030, spurred on by a ban on some plastic items in 2022.

As the UN continues to develop its own global regulations, Canadian businesses and consumers are starting to feel the impacts of our single-use plastics ban, and some industries are finding it more challenging than others to adapt.

Designing a plastics ban

In order to determine what items to include in the first phase of the ban, the federal government performed a scientific assessment of plastic consumption. Based on this study, the ban targeted six items determined to be of highest concern: plastic ring carriers, plastic straws, plastic stir sticks, plastic bags, plastic cutlery and plastic food wares.

The government also laudably categorized plastics as a toxic substance.

However, the question remains: is Canada’s single-use plastics ban actually going to make a big difference?

Among the targeted plastics are common food service items such as takeout containers and plastic cutlery, items which are among the most commonly found in the environment. This waste alongside the usefulness of plastics for restaurants would seemingly make the food service industry an essential place to start when addressing plastics waste.

Focus on circularity and reusable alternatives rather than single-use items

When looking for alternatives to single-use plastics as a restaurant operator, there are a plethora of single-use paper, bamboo, compostable, biodegradable, wood pulp or bio-based plastic options.

However, despite the advantage that many of these alternatives can break down over time, not enough emphasis is put on the remaining essential single-use nature of these items.

Indeed, the ability for compostable and biodegradable food wares to be accepted in a municipal composting facility is entirely dependent on the waste management cycle of that municipality, which can differ greatly between neighbouring cities.

Additionally, given the lack of standardization on what is classified as biodegradable, consumers can often be deceived by mislabelled products.

After all, microplastics are biodegraded plastics.

Offering alternative materials to food service operators is certainly a step in the right direction. However, as an effective long-term solution, the government needs to offer support for the integration and growth of circular systems.

In doing so, we also need to acknowledge the challenges involved in implementing these systems for restaurant operators.

Challenges and solutions for food service operators

The greatest challenges operators are facing with this ban are the costs of quickly switching to reusable or compostable items, sourcing issues and the general lack of alternatives that tick all the same material boxes as conventional plastics.

Looking at the way restaurant operators are responding to this challenge, there are a few key solutions we need to be focusing on.

First and foremost is an emphasis on reusables over alternatives. To make a zero-plastic waste transition realistic, we need to focus on supporting the infrastructure and consumer education required to make reusables accessible.

Ample progress has been made in this area since takeout food has become more common and has resulted in the launch of multiple reusable takeout container startups such as Suppli, Friendlier, or ShareWares.

Additionally, as with any change that affects our daily lives, our own habits are simultaneously the easiest place to start and the hardest to change. As such, a large piece of this transition will be consumer education so that restaurant goers and grocery shoppers understand the ‘why’ behind this plastics transition.

All levels of government can better support restaurants through this transition by providing guidance, funding and advocacy for scaling reusable startups and for integrating them into food service with different communities likely requiring different levels of support.

Some companies have been experimenting with their own reusable schemes, however, relying on corporate drive alone will not be sufficient.

Seeing the plastics ban as an opportunity

In light of the development of this ban and the deliberations over the United Nations’ plastic regulation treaty, it’s clear that legislation surrounding single-use plastic reduction will likely increase over the next decade.

Restaurant operators, and other industries that regularly handle single-use plastics need to be more proactive about what they will need from their government to become less reliant on plastics in the future.

Moreover, the six items included on Canada’s list of banned plastics are by no means comprehensive and activists continue to call for additional items to be included. In particular, nine additional common single-use plastics were found in the environment but are not being practically addressed.

Canada has the opportunity to be a global leader with the implementation of this single-use plastics ban by supporting reuse and moving towards circular practices.

If we can get further support for reusable programs, expand the list of harmful plastics and provide targeted consumer education around the harms of plastic waste then we have a real shot at an exemplary start to a circular economy.

Are we up to the challenge?

Bruce McAdams is associate professor in Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, at the University of Guelph and Emily Robinson is a post-graduate researcher and food education manager at the University of Guelph. 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The Together for Sustainable Packaging alliance – which includes McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Baskin Robbins – is pushing back against reuse regulations with marketing campaigns that suggest that the sweet simplicity of takeaway as we know it is at risk. Observers have been struck by the sheer scale of the lobbying effort on display in the European Parliament.  

Last November, the European Commission proposed new EU-wide rules to reduce packaging waste by 15% by 2040, compared to 2018 levels. If approved, revised legislation would ban single-use packaging for food and beverages consumed inside restaurants and cafés, single-use packaging for fruits and vegetables, and those mini shampoo bottles we take home from hotels. Other measures aim to make packaging entirely recyclable by 2030 and set mandatory minimums of recycled contents in new packaging. The proposed legislation also demands rigour when it comes to material labelled as biodegradable, requiring companies to specify how long the material will take to decompose, under which circumstances and in which environment.  

According to the European Commission, each person living in Europe produces, on average, roughly 180 kilograms of package waste per year. Without stricter action, legislators say, the region is on track to see its packaging waste jump another 19% by 2030. In the case of plastic alone, it could soar by 46%. Proponents say the new rules will slash water usage and greenhouse gas emissions by an amount equivalent to what Croatia generates every year.  

Environmental advocacy organizations have applauded the “strong aim” but pushed legislators to be “more ambitious.” They also warn against ploys to water down language.  

The current system works really well for them, because they get to keep using single-use packaging.

 

– Justine Maillot, Rethink Plastic alliance

 

Enter exhibit A: a multi-pronged campaign by the fast-food lobbying group calling out what a study it funded said would be a skyrocketing need for water and energy to wash reusable containers, along with a greater risk of cross-contamination in food-production lines. In March, McDonald’s, which generates more than one billion kilos of packaging every year, sponsored an article on the news website politico.eu that argued that reusable packaging will be “counterproductive” to the Green Deal goals Europe is trying to achieve. It’s not alone: industry lobbyists had more than 290 meetings on the topic with European Parliament members in early 2022 alone, according to DeSmog. 

None of this is a surprise to environmental advocates. “The current system works really well for them, because they get to keep using single-use packaging,” Justine Maillot, from the advocacy organization Rethink Plastic alliance, told DeSmog. “It’s still very profitable.” 

Efforts to combat packaging waste have been a long time coming. Zimbabwe banned plastic bottles and packaging back in 2010. The small Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda followed suit with single-use takeaway items in 2016. Parts of Europe have more recently entered the fray, with France now making it mandatory for fast-food restaurants to use reusable dishware and cutlery, and similar regulations will take effect in Britain later this year. In 2022, Canada announced its own phased-in prohibition on the manufacture, import and sale of six single-use plastic items, including plastic bags, straws and cutlery.  

Researchers at the University of Portsmouth note that it will take more than bans to change throwaway-culture attitudes. Governments need to actively pursue truly greener alternatives – a paper bag may not cut it, they note. Antigua and Barbuda, for example, invested in research for plastic alternatives and approved bagasse, a fibrous residue left from sugarcane processing, as a substitute material for packaging. In Vanuatu, bags and food containers made from palm leaves filled a gap after plastic bags were banned. “Working closely with the public like this can also encourage innovation,” the researchers noted.  

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It doesn’t take an industry insider to tell us the plastic sector is losing its license to operate. In early April, a pregnant sperm whale was found dead off the coast of Italy with 22 kilograms of plastic in its belly. This just weeks after another dead whale was found with twice that amount of plastic in the Philippines. As the reality of waterways drowning in plastic sinks in, a growing number of cities, countries and companies are joining the worldwide revolt against the ‘miracle’ material.  And yet at a front line in the battle against throwaway plastics, most Canadian grocers have yet to take meaningful action.

Food packaging is responsible for about a third of all Canadian household waste, and just 20% of that gets recycled, according to Industry Canada. Even less if it’s the plastic kind. There are no hard stats for how much plastic trash grocers alone create in Canada, but over 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are generated by supermarkets in Britain every year. And that doesn’t include the roughly 1.1 billion plastic shopping bags and 1.2 billion clear plastic produce bags that supermarkets dish out annually.

The plastic pushback by shoppers and campaigners has been so intense across the pond that nearly every major supermarket signed onto the UK Plastics Pact last summer, promising to oust unnecessary single-use plastics by 2025 and use only reusable, compostable or recyclable packaging. British grocers are already way ahead of the curve. UK’s sixth biggest grocer, Co-op, cut plastic packaging by 44% in the last decade. Last month, Britain’s largest supermarket, Tesco, started trials to remove plastic packaging from 45 produce items in a handful of stores. The likes of apples, onions, bananas and avocados will only be sold in all-natural packaging – their very own skins and peels.

Tesco will also be purging all hard-to-recycle packaging (cling wrap, black plastic and that #3 PVC stuff) six years ahead of the Plastics Pact.  “Ideally we would like to move to a closed loop system,” said the grocer’s Chief Product Officer Jason Tarry.

A lot of closed loop talk is bandied about in this country, too. And some efforts are underway. But so far, major Canadian grocers haven’t done a whole lot about it. Walk into a Loblaws, Sobeys or Metro store and endless bags of produce sit alongside pre-portioned, pre-cut fruits and veg of every variety, often Styrofoam-backed and shrink-wrapped. Grocers can rightfully argue that packaging some foods in cling wrap extends shelf life and curbs food waste – a significant greenhouse gas contributor. But do Loblaw’s “farmer’s market” cucumbers really need to come double-wrapped in two layers of shrink wrap?

One large British grocery chain has found a compromise. Last year, Morrisons opted to ditch plastic packaging from its loose English cucumbers when they can be sourced locally between March and October. Shortening the supply chain and getting fresh cucumbers from farm-to-shelves faster will save 16 million plastic sleeves a year. Said Morrisons, “While plastic can serve a purpose we believe this move will remove it from the environment without leading to food waste.”

Ready-to-eat trend fuels rise in single-serve plastics

In the lead up to SIAL Canada, North America’s biggest food innovation trade show (Toronto, April 30 to May 2), SIAL experts chipperly forecasted that “in 2030, ready-to-eat will be the dominant force in Canadian grocery stores, and it will take up more than 80% of retail space.” What goes unsaid is how much plastic is involved in fueling the food industry’s ready-to-eat megatrend. As Dalhousie U profs Sylvain Charlebois and Tony Walker have written, “Canada’s food industry continues to generate more waste from single-use plastic food packaging every year” in part because of the expanding single-serve economy feeding a growing population of Canadians living alone. A trend they say will increase “at alarming rates” – if left unchecked.

Canadian grocers respond  

So, what are Canadian supermarkets doing about plastics?

Despite repeated requests for comment, Empire (the conglomerate behind Sobeys, Safeway, Farm Boy, IGA, Price Chopper and Foodland) didn’t respond to inquiries about its plastic policies. Neither did the Toronto-area chain Longo’s, which also owns Grocery Gateway. 

Walmart Canada’s gone further than most major food suppliers in this country, announcing back in January that it would joining Ellen MacArthur Foundation-led commitments to use 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging by 2025 – at least for Walmart’s in-house private labels. Walmart Canada also says it’s developing design guides to help its private label suppliers “reduce unnecessary plastic packaging.”

Loblaw (No Frills, Valu Mart, Superstore, Maxi, Zehrs, Fortinos, T&T) has yet to announce any commitment to the 2025 targets that over 250 other companies have signed onto globally. A Loblaw rep said in a statement that the company is working with Canadian Stewardship Services Alliance Inc. and the Circular Economy Leadership Coalition to “promote a whole new approach to sustainable management of the use and ideally the re-use of product and packaging materials.”

Loblaw is right to call it a “huge task” and to note that the plastics challenge “requires the work of industry, government and consumers – and a system built to address the environmental, social and business opportunities and risks associated with waste.”

British grocers have, nonetheless, proven that individual supermarket chains can take the bull by the horns and eliminate plastic from thousands of products in their own stores, as has Toronto’s Organic Garage chain, which has already purged all of its bagged produce.

To its credit, Loblaw says it has reduced packaging in its private brand products by 4.9 tonnes since 2009. It’s taken some constructive steps, including using reusable produce containers to ship produce. But wander its aisles and you’ll still see plenty of unnecessary plastic (including those double-wrapped cucumbers).

Like Loblaw, Metro has yet to release an official packaging policy, but Metro’s VP of Public Affairs, Marie-Claude Bacon, says the grocer is finalizing a packaging policy to be launched in the first half of 2019. “We recognize that waste, including plastic waste, is a concern for our customers, as it is for us,” says Bacon.

In the meantime, all of its Quebec locations are, as of April, letting customers fill their own containers from home (glass containers excluded) when buying from Metro’s meat, fish, prepared foods and pastry departments. The practice is already common at indie bulk stores and zero waste stores like Unboxed in Toronto, Nada in Vancouver and Ottawa’s Nu, but large supermarkets have been resistant up until now.

Greenpeace’s plastic campaigner, Sarah King, says the move alone won’t necessarily cause a large reduction in plastic use, unless there’s a massive uptake by customers or Metro also removes single-use packaging in these departments. Still, she says, “It can help create the conditions for larger change.”

Canadian cities beat feds to the punch

The vast majority of Canadians believe the government should be doing more to tackle plastic –– 82%, according to an Angus Reid poll conducted for CBC Marketplace. So far, lower levels of government are taking the lead. Montreal, Victoria and soon PEI and Newfoundland are all outlawing plastic bags. Following in Vancouver’s footsteps, Montreal announced last week that it’s hoping to ban single-use plastics by 2020 (including Styrofoam-backed meat, fish and veg). Despite gutting other environmental regs, even Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government is considering a single-use plastic ban knowing the issue has broad support across political divides.

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has promised a concrete plastic strategy is coming in June. Hopefully, the feds go beyond voluntary measures and half-baked solutions, including incinerating plastics (which disincentivizes reduction strategies) and biodegradable plastics that aren’t wanted in recycling or compost bins and, sadly, only belong in trash bins.

A federal EU style ban on a dozen single-use plastics would be a solid place to start. A coalition of nearly 50 environmental orgs, including Environmental Defence, Greenpeace and the David Suzuki Foundation, have called on the feds to ban all hard-to-recycle plastics and bring in a national 75% recycled content standard for single-use plastics, along with other measures that would help lay the foundation for a circular economy that doesn’t just trash its plastics.

Back in Texas, the plastics industry is already bracing for change. Bob Patel, CEO of LyondellBasell (one of the world’s largest plastics makers), told World Petrochemical Conference goers that the industry should prepare to sacrifice 1 to 2% of the plastic stream. “If certain single-use applications should no longer be in plastics, then let it be what it is.” Packaging consultant, Victor Bell, was less optimistic, suggesting the backlash against plastics could potentially cut growth in demand for new resin by half, as regs mandating more recycling come into force in the European Union and beyond.

If we do this right, Canadian grocers and governments can make sure this country is a leader in slashing demand for water-clogging disposables made of virgin resources. Let’s just hope they don’t let this crisis go to waste.

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