Edible Vancouver Island Fall 2022

“The real game changer will be when people buy less plastic, reuse what they have and minimize what goes in the trash and into recycling,”

COMPOSTABLE IS COMPLICATED Unilever and PepsiCo include compostable packaging as part of their strategies to reduce waste. Chipotle and Sweetgreen use compostable material for take-out meals. Compostables are made of plant-based materials—corn, starch or sugarcane—unlike plastics derived from petroleum. Compostable packaging isn’t always sustainable, though. With out the right infrastructure, pricing and awareness, compostables can contribute to the food packaging waste problem. “Compostable is often referring to packaging that must be transported to an industrial composting facility—which it often isn’t, and just ends up in a land ll versus recycled,” says Emily Stucker, vice president of menu innovation and product integrity at Farmer’s Fridge. is is, in part, because composting facilities are not available nationally. Mixing compostables into curbside bins can contami nate recycling streams. rowing compostables in the trash gets them sent to land lls, where they emit methane. When proper infrastructure and education are in place, pro cessing compost can be sustainable, especially given that munici palities pay for waste processing by weight. “A municipality that can gure out how to minimize its organic waste stream will be saving funds over the long run, as well as cutting greenhouse gas emissions and producing material that will enrich soils… It’s a win all over,” says Mesa. But only if they can a ord it. “We would have loved to be in all compostable packaging from the beginning, but for a small company starting out, pricing for small runs and guaranteed shelf life for new products with un known velocity can be prohibitive,” says Logan Farley, chief operat ing o cer at Brass Roots, a plant-based snack company based in New Orleans, Louisiana. IF THE PRICE IS RIGHT Food businesses consider pricing, shelf life and quality of pre sentation for packaging, and it’s been cheaper to choose plastic packaging. Brass Roots Founder Aaron Gailmor believes the tide is turning, however.

“Along with the innovation in more sustainable packaging, pric ing has come down dramatically, and it’s only a small premium to conventional or fossil fuel-based packaging now,” Gailmor says. Ecovative’s technology upcycles farming and forestry byproducts through mycelium to create plastic-free and home-compostable prod ucts for the food, leather, beauty, foam and packaging industries. Gailmor is hopeful that more options can be available at large scale as consumer demand rises. “If you’d asked me two years ago, I wouldn’t have been as enthu siastic,” says Gailmor, “but I am very con dent now.” Consumer demand drives innovation, lower prices and more sustainable op tions for small businesses like Brass Roots, but the onus can’t be only on eaters. THE POWER OF PROCUREMENT One powerful solution is for government and institutional pro curement practices to help reduce or eliminate plastic packaging. “We can do this on an individual level and also need to support systems shifts, from our schools to our workplaces to policy and legislation,” says Cohen. San Francisco, California, was one of the rst cities to make a zero-waste commitment in 2003—it diverts 80 percent of its waste from land lls. Vendors use either compostable or recyclable contain ers, and every event must o er recycling and composting. e city also requires individuals and businesses to separate waste into recy clable, compostable and trash bins. “Moving away from single-serve meals and snacks is probably the most impactful way to reduce packaging waste in an institutional setting,” says the Center for Good Food Purchasing, a nonpro t that aims to use procurement to build a more equitable food system. According to the Center, buying bulk items can help institu tions reduce both packaging waste and food waste—a win for tight budgets, too. For example, many elementary school districts are required to serve milk which is distributed in single-serve cartons. Students take a carton, drink some or none of it and throw it in the trash. But when the Austin Independent School District in Texas transitioned

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