Customers may see takeout containers, straws and other items replaced with greener alternatives in the new year as Canada’s food service industry adjusts to the phase-in of a federal law that aims to eventually completely remove many single-use plastics from the market.
Some restaurants have already gone through months of trial and error trying to find the best alternatives to single-use plastic items.
“We try to be ahead of the game,” said Paul Bognar, president and chief operating officer of Service Inspired Restaurants, which operates multiple restaurants, including Jack Astor’s and Scaddabush.
Although single-use plastics are not yet completely banned, he said the company’s restaurants are ready to go plastic-free at the start of the new year after months of testing.
After a one-year delay, the first phase of the federal law began on December 20. The initial phase bans the manufacture and importation for sale of a range of single-use plastics, including: checkout bags such as those used in grocery stores; cutlery such as forks, knives and chopsticks; Take-away containers made partly or wholly of plastics, including styrofoam, carbon black and oxo-degradable plastics; stir sticks; and drinking straws, except for the accommodation of persons in need of them. Plastic ring carriers will be banned from production and import for sale in June 2023.
In December 2023, all of these products will be banned from sale, except for ring carriers, which will be banned from sale in June 2024, and in December 2025, a ban on production, import and export will come into effect for the sale of all these products in effect.
This means that single-use plastics will not yet completely disappear from restaurants, cafes and bars, as many will still use up their stocks. But many companies have already started the transition, so they are prepared once they can no longer buy these products.
For example, Tim Hortons recently announced that it is launching new hot drink lids with recyclable fibers, compostable cutlery and breakfast and lunch packaging in 2023. McDonald’s began removing some single-use plastics from its restaurants in late 2021. including straws, cutlery and stirrers.
Bognar said Restaurants Inspired Services recently switched to bamboo takeout utensils and started asking people if they wanted cutlery at all.
But one of the biggest challenges was finding new takeout containers.
Bognar said they used recyclable plastics, but found they couldn’t be recycled in all jurisdictions, so the company tried other options, eventually settling on a waxed cardboard takeout box that is both recyclable and biodegradable.
He had employees and some customers test different containers, covering the shipping fee in exchange for feedback.
But not all restaurateurs are ready to make the transition ahead of schedule.
Many businesses still have large stocks of plastic containers to use and may even have extra after the COVID-19 lockdown.
Buying new containers was the last thing on Oyster Boy owner Adam Colquhoun’s mind heading into the new year as he dealt with the holiday rush at his Toronto restaurant.
Like many restaurants, he said he has a “basement full” of containers he needs to use up before thinking about what he can replace them with permanently, although he said his co-owner has sourced some compostable containers during the pandemic .
“I’m just ignoring it for now and I’ll look into it sometime at the end of January when I have time,” Colquhoun said.
Colquhoun is among those who think the ban on single-use plastics is a small thing, a Band-Aid, against the larger forces causing climate change, and said he believes small businesses are often the ones pay the price.
There was a lot of enthusiasm for greener options in the food service sector before the pandemic, said Kelly Higginson, chief operating officer of the industry group Restaurants Canada, but recently that has turned into another pressure on businesses.
Restaurateurs can choose from a wide variety of new options made from materials including bamboo, oats, corn, rice and paper, Higginson said.
The switch could increase the price of some items by up to 125 percent, she said, adding that there were also concerns about supply chains and product quality.
“We want something that’s high quality, that’s sustainable, that doesn’t cost too much. And right now there are some of these items on the market,” she said. “It’s just a matter of how much you get your hands on.”
Although new items tend to be more expensive, Bognar is optimistic that as they become more common, prices will drop. Even supply chain issues are starting to ease, he added.
However, he acknowledged that it’s easier for large restaurant groups like Service Inspired Restaurants to find and test new products, while independent restaurants are at a disadvantage.
International companies have a head start on the transition, Higginson said, as some countries and jurisdictions have already made a similar transition.
In the coming months and years, Higginson hopes for more consistency between levels of government; while the law is federal, there are often different rules at the local level about what is accepted as recyclable, for example.
She also wants to see more education from the government about how consumers should properly dispose of these items.
“It was a disappointment to our members,” she said.
“They’re forced to buy these more expensive items and struggle with some supply chain issues, but then, you know, the consumer doesn’t recycle them properly or compost them properly.”
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on January 2, 2023.
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