Happy New Year! Au Revoir Plastic!

Our French cousins have been making waves for the start of this New Year....and it's not COVID related!

In an effort to phase out plastic packaging by 2026, the French government has freshly introduced a ban on the use of plastic packaging on 30 different fruit and veg products. 

But why is plastic such a big problem?

Since the early days of the first plastics over 65 years ago, consumption has risen to over 380 million tonnes annually*. Of this, only 9% is estimated to be recycled! **

We couldn't actually find stats on plastic packaging use in fresh produce, but you just have to wander into any store to see how much of an issue it is.

Surely the French government is making a great move? We think so, but it’s not as popular a move as you might think.   

Some in the industry argue that plastic packaging protects produce from damage and extends the shelf life. Yes, packaging can extend the life of some products. Cucumbers are the best example as they go floppy in a couple of days without plastic wrapping. And these are both perfectly valid reasons but they’re also an excuse to do one thing…make more money. Slightly bent cucumbers = less sales. 

Ultimately businesses are looking for ways to make what they buy and sell last longer on the shelves, and with a minimum of intervention once it’s there. Few businesses want to go around their fresh veg aisles checking whether the produce is still good - which is why you often get a sweaty mushroom or gooey bit of spinach in that plastic bag. 

And of course removing plastic could mean an increase in the risk of waste - but only because the current system doesn’t allow for a non-plastic solution to be a viable alternative. 

Plastic is extremely cheap to produce and move, helps display produce clearly and is very easy to pack items into. But alternatives exist! Compostable cardboard packaging has been around forever. There are even developments that exist to lightly laser barcodes onto the skins of some produce! And surely we're smart enough to work with producers to get produce like cucumbers onto the shelf quickly enough so it can be hard & naked....it's no joke (sort of).

Ultimately, the world shouldn't be built on a plastic base.

That’s why you won’t get any plastic on your deliveries from us, because we don’t want to be passing the burden of plastic onto you, and, in some small way we hope when dealing with our suppliers that our stand against plastic will rub off and start to persuade others to change their habits. 

Of course not all change can come from these small gestures, we need legislation to make big, smart and sometimes unpopular moves (remember the ban on plastic bags) that rewards (forces) innovation that otherwise wouldn't happen if left to their own devices. Which is why this news from Europe is a really positive move in the right direction in our eyes. 

So Merci France! Thanks for kicking off the year with a little less plastic!

Sources

*https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

**2017 Science Advances paper entitled “Production, Use And Fate Of All Plastics Ever Made”.