Edible Vancouver Island Fall 2022

IS PLASTIC WASTE THE COST OF EATING?

S T O R Y B Y E M I L Y P A Y N E A N D D A N I E L L E N I E R E N B E R G

About a year ago, a comedian—not a scientist or environmentalist—enlightened consumers about a product they use every day that is harmful to the planet.

“A lot less plastic winds up getting recycled than you might think,” John Oliver said on that particular episode of Last Week Tonight , which has now been viewed more than 4 million times. In the United States and Canada, less than 9 percent of plastics is recycled. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), packaging comprises the largest percent of U.S. plastic waste. Since the pandemic disrupted curbside pickup and put more emphasis on single-use products, especially in food service, these numbers have only worsened. Consumers often see plastic food packaging as the cost of eating: tubs of salad greens; clear clamshells for berries; and even, pre-wrapped cucumbers and other produce. And while many plastics are recyclable, they still end up in land lls, oceans and, ultimately, in our bodies. Now, however, in an exciting wave of innovation, businesses and entrepreneurs are rethinking how to package food. REALLY RECYCLED? “Much food packaging is made from plastic, and most plastics are never recycled—though the plastics industry has long worked to convince us otherwise,” says Dianna Cohen, co-founder and CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition. One-quarter of packaging reaching recycling facilities is contaminated and, thus, sent to land lls, the EPA estimates. Contamination can occur from contact with non-recyclables in

recycling bins or items that are not clean—the most common culprit is food residue. Further, recycling facilities are often underfunded and over whelmed. In 2018, China stopped importing most plastic waste from both the U.S. and Canada. at ban upended recycling systems that relied on exports, and neither country has been successful in building a domestic recycling market. For example, Stamford, Connecticut made $95,000 selling recyclables in 2017; after 2018, it paid $700,000 for removal. And Bakers eld, California, earned $65 per ton from recyclables; it now pays $25 a ton to get rid of them. e recycling system is also wrought with environmental injustice. “Recycling facilities are predominantly built in mar ginalized communities, in part due to the traditional invisibility of and bias against low-income communities of color and In digenous peoples,” says Nilda Mesa, director of urban sustain ability and equity planning at Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development. Amid pressure to transform the recycling system, experts are advocating for circularity in food packaging. Circular systems pre vent waste from reaching recycling facilities by implementing strat egies to reuse and repurpose plastics already created. A shift in this direction requires the food industry to rethink packaging materials and to consider what the reuse and disposal of plastics (eventually) would look like, especially for packaging that is compostable.

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