Complications in supermarkets’ plastics push
Weighing up the cost of food waste against plastic packaging is tricky business, supermarkets tell Bonnie Flaws.
Striking a balance between reducing plastic in the produce aisles and limiting methane emissions from food waste is a balancing act, says Countdown spokeswoman Kiri Hannifan.
While the supermarket wants packaging used in its own brands – Macro, Essentials and Countdown’s Own – to be reusable or recyclable by 2025, it also aims to end food waste going to landfill by then.
Countdown has trialled unwrapped produce and is continuing to look at ways to reduce plastic.
However, for some produce, plastic packaging is necessary to extend shelf life, which in turn helps prevent food waste. In those situations, the supermarket chain has sourced recycled plastic packaging that can be recycled again, she says.
Methane from food waste is a focus for Countdown and changes to packaging need to be balanced against creating another problem, Hannifin says.
‘‘Products like berries and cherry tomatoes, for example, are more susceptible to getting squashed and damaged, so having them in a plastic pack, rather than providing them loose, prevents that from happening.
‘‘Other products, like telegraph cucumbers, which have a very sensitive skin, are wrapped to keep them fresher for longer.’’
Banana company Dole recently announced it is replacing plastic wrap on its Bobby bananas with a recyclable tape – a move the company says will prevent about 16 tonnes of plastic from going to landfill.
Dole New Zealand general manager Steve Barton says the company has joined the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme as part of an overall drive to reduce fruit loss, packaging waste and carbon emissions and to get to zero fossil-based plastic packaging by 2025.
While it won’t be collected at kerbside, customers can collect the tape and take it along with other soft plastic waste to dropoff points, where it is collected and sent to Future Post, a company that turns it into fence posts, vegetable garden frames and parking bumpers.
New World supermarkets spokeswoman Antoinette Laird says it has removed any unnecessary plastic packaging through its Food in the Nude project. Misting units are used instead to keep produce hydrated and fresh.
So far, 54 pre-packaged lines
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New World has also worked with suppliers to get rid of plastic sleeves on produce and has adopted reusable crates throughout its supply chain.
Laird says items such as spring onions, celery and silver beet are harvested, tagged and sent to supermarkets in the crates, which are then sent back to suppliers. In one year, 3.4 tonnes of plastic packaging has been removed from products.
‘‘Customers can support this mahi by bringing in their reusable produce bags,’’ she says.
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Plastics New Zealand chief executive Rachel Barker says it’s unlikely that shoppers will see completely plastic-free produce aisles at the supermarket, because much of it is done out of necessity and there are trade-offs involved.
The environmental impact of food waste is huge, she says.
‘‘You’ve got all the energy, water and chemicals that have gone into growing it in the first place, and then transporting it. If it then does end up as waste and it’s not composted then you are going to have emissions to deal with, Barker says.
‘‘With cucumbers, the reality is that 2 grams of plastic gives an extra 10 days of shelf life, which is really hard to beat when you’re looking at supply chain lengths.’’
When it comes to bananas, however, ditching plastic is a nobrainer: ‘‘I’ve never seen the need for it. They’ve got their own packaging, effectively.’’
Labels on individual fruit – often referred to as stickers – are another necessity because they contain important information like barcodes, price and variety, which are used to trace the produce.
The biggest label maker, Jenkins Freshpac Systems, has committed to making most of its labels compostable by 2025. General manager
Jamie Luman says the company is in the process of ensuring not just the backing material, but the adhesive, label and inks are compostable and food grade, which is a challenge.
The labels have played an important role in plastics reduction, because they prevent the need to bag produce, he says.
Information about food safety, country of origin, traceability, variety and the PLU code must be on the food. If it is not on a label, then it must be packaged, he says.
New Zealand
Institute of Economic Research principal economist Chris Nixon says casual observations in supermarkets show there is still a lot of plastic wrapping on fruit and vegetables.
The fact that it is still there can indicate a few things, including a genuine requirement, tacit permission from customers, or the need for more direct action by the Government, as happened with the ban on plastic bags at checkout.
Consumer preference is an ‘‘uncomfortable’’ reality, he says.
‘‘On the one hand they are saying that they don’t want plastic and on the other hand they are buying the products with plastic,’’ he says.
‘‘That’s where the supermarkets are treading the line because they know what sells.’’
University of Auckland professor of operations and supply chain management, Tava Olsen, says supermarkets are getting better at thinking hard about plastic but suspects there are some products that will be uneconomic to stock without it.
It will probably require greater customer demand to be able to shorten supply chains and quickly turnover unwrapped produce, she says.
‘‘That’s a challenge for New Zealand because we are fairly small. We shop once a week from a fairly wide distance, so we expect things to last in our fridge for at least a week.’’
Greenpeace spokeswoman Holly Dove says many people can remember a time when food came plastic-free. ‘‘[It] has only been around for a couple of decades and there’s no reason why we can’t go back to living, mostly, without it. It just might mean stopping the sale of unnecessary plastic-wrapped items such as individual wrapped corn cobs and celery and carrot sticks wrapped in plastic.’’
Leaving it to supermarkets is not enough. Greenpeace wants a Government strategy to put single-use plastics out of action for good, she says.
‘‘On the one hand they are saying that they don’t want plastic and on the other hand they are buying the products with plastic.’’ Chris Nixon