Plastic, not so fantastic: Restaurant industry grapples with waste

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The last 15 months have seen plenty of trends come and go. Remember when elbow bumps were a thing? When we were all making sourdough bread? When Ina Garten’s giant Cosmo became #lifegoals?

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But throughout the pandemic, one thing has remained constant: the relentless onslaught of packaging waste, all those boxes, bags, clamshells, cups, bowls and lids, so many lids, all meant to be used once then tossed away.

If you hate dealing with all this garbage, you’re not alone. The restaurants who’ve relied on takeout to survive aren’t so keen on it either.

For one thing, it’s expensive. Ron McGillivray, owner of Fable Diner, estimates he’s spending $350 a week for takeout containers when normally he’d just be reusing ceramic plates.

“The packaging industry has flourished,” he says. “They probably have had record sales in the last year.”

And those containers cost a lot more than they did a couple of years ago.

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“During the pandemic, packaging doubled in price,” says Justin Tisdall, co-owner of Juke Fried Chicken and Beetbox.

But cost is just one issue when it comes to packaging waste.

The problem with plastic

Of all the garbage generated by takeout and delivery, plastic is the biggest problem, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made it worse. It’s estimated that the use of single-use plastics has soared by 250 to 300 per cent worldwide.

Even before the pandemic, though, Canadians were world leaders in producing garbage. Each of us, on average, uses 700 plastic bags, 720 single-use cups, 730 straws and a whopping 1,025 plastic bottles per year — yet we only recycle nine per cent of all plastics in Canada.

Instead, 3.3 million tonnes of plastic, half of it packaging, ends up in Canada’s landfills each year, according to A Greener Future, an Ontario-based environmental non-profit. Another 29,000 tonnes litter our natural areas, a third of that food packaging.

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Now the Government of Canada has proposed a ban on single-use plastics as part of a larger effort to achieve zero plastic waste by 2030. The ban will focus on six items: grocery bags, straws, stir sticks, six-pack rings, cutlery and food ware made from hard-to-recycle plastics.

It’s a good start.

Gathering the data

Each year, Canada’s garbage joins the more than 11 million tons of plastic that litter the oceans, 83 per cent of it from five materials commonly found in the food service industry: cling wrap, condiment packets, plastic bags, plastic bottles and single-use food ware.

Now Ocean Wise, the independent charitable non-profit best known for its sustainable seafood program, has a plan to tackle that.

In March, Ocean Wise launched a plastic reduction program directed at the hospitality industry. Once a restaurant or hotel signs up, its first task is to measure the amount of plastic it actually uses.

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“A lot of what we started to understand was there wasn’t any data,” says Laura Hardman, the Plastic Free Oceans Leader at Ocean Wise. “With our program, we’re really filling that data gap. There’s no judgment. We just want to know what they’re using in their business. Once they finish their survey, we sit down with them and discuss ways to use less plastic.”

By the end of May, 11 partners had signed up with another 60 in the works.

“Partners are already coming back and saying that just by measuring their plastic waste they are seeing opportunities for quick ways to reduce it,” Hardman says. “We’re also hoping to inspire other partners, to say it’s possible — whether you are a mom-and-pop business or a multinational corporation — to reduce the plastic in our oceans.”

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The compostable conundrum

Meanwhile, many restaurants, in an effort to be good citizens, have opted to use compostable plastics, even though they are about a third more expensive than regular ones.

“All of our packaging from day one has been compostable. We weren’t prepared to compromise on that,” says Tisdall. “It was never ever a discussion. It’s just how it is.”

It’s the same over at Tractor Foods.

“We’ve invested heavily in compostable bowls and cups and cutlery and stuff,” says Meghan Clarke, Tractor’s co-founder. “The eco side of it, the sustainability of it, has always been very important to us.”

Compostable plastics are made from plant-based materials and are designed to break down quickly. The problem is that most composting facilities don’t provide the specific conditions they need to break down fully. At the same time, compostables can contaminate the regular plastic recycling stream. As a result, they often end up in the landfill.

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“It depends on where you live and whether your city or condo takes those compostable materials,” Clarke says. “Unfortunately, sometimes whoever picks up the waste can’t process it.”

Adds Tisdall, who’s now consulting with Ocean Wise: “B.C. has limited recycling on their compostable products. That made us revisit things. It’s a really complex issue, so we’re taking our time to do it right.”

Reduce, reuse, recycle

But it’s not just whether an item should be compostable or recyclable. The question really is whether it’s necessary in the first place. For instance, if someone is ordering takeout for home, chances are they already have cutlery. So why provide plastic forks and spoons?

“Start with reducing. Start by just not supplying it,” Hardman says. “Then reuse. Take your own container or buy into a deposit scheme where you can return the container.”

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Indeed, reusable containers are looking like a better solution all the time.

When Tractor launched their Tractor at Home meal kit delivery platform, Clarke knew that compostables wouldn’t work.

“You have to consider longevity,” Clarke says. “That packaging has to stand up in your fridge for a few days. A lot of the compostable vessels break down in a short time.”

Instead, much of the food is packaged in reusable glass jars.

“We’re a weekly subscription so when we’re putting those boxes on your doorstep, we pick up the used jars and ice bags,” Clarke says. “We really try hard to minimize everything  that goes into the landfill. It can all be repurposed or reused or recycled.”

The new Giovane Bacaro is also introducing a refundable/reusable container program for their new line of salad jars, while Juke is working on reusable “Juke Boxes” and Fable Diner is looking into the stainless steel takeout containers made by Vancouver-based Reusables.com. Customers join a membership-based program, then return the containers to a drop-off location when they’re done.

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“Can we make it work? We’d love to,” says McGillivray, who anticipates that even after the pandemic ends, takeout will comprise 25 to 35 per cent of his sales. “Like with anything, it’s a great idea, but there are cost and operational issues to overcome.”

“It’s not that there is a lack of will,” Hardman says. “The community just seems to be looking for more guidance.”

Food needs to get from the restaurant to your home looking and tasting good. But it would nice if our voracious appetite for takeout didn’t destroy the planet.

“Packaging is always evolving,” Clarke says. “It’s so complex. We don’t live in a perfect world with these perfect facilities that take stuff back. It’s often not cut and dry.”