Canada

Nearly every food item on the shelf has plastic. Aluminum cans are lined with plastic on the inside, glass bottles have a plastic freshness seal/cap. Even pasta boxes, one of the few cardboard packaged goods that don't have an inner plastic liner often have a little plastic window so you can see what the pasta looks like.

And yet we're being told that plastic bags are the problem. Literally the only plastic thing you get from the grocery store that isn't single use. Instead we have paper bags which are bulkier and have a higher carbon footprint, and we still end up with a bunch of actually single use plastic bags because we no longer have anything to use as small garbage bags.

Definitely a good idea to reduce plastic waste, but I think that putting too much emphasis on grocery packaging can miss the mark. For things like food, it is important to be able to have things sealed for freshness or food safety. The unnecessary waste in my mind comes more from things like packaging of other products, like showy retail clamshell packaging that’s significantly larger than the item being sold, or that only exists as a marketing gimmick to make things look good on retail shelves.

A good model is some things from Amazon that just gets shipped in plain cardboard because that’s more recyclable/renewable than plastic. I also feel that the efficiency of having large warehouses, even when the items are shipped individually is better than having to have a whole retail supply chain that involves creating an appealing retail space. Especially if someone is making a trip in a vehicle to pick up just a couple retail items. Another good example is something like the Lee Valley model where many items don’t have significant packaging at all, and they use a smaller show-room style retail space supplemented by more efficient warehousing storage in the back. Lee Valley even has a program to collect and re-use shipping boxes so they can be directly used multiple time before getting put through a recycling process.

In a lot of ways, it’s up to the consumer to make buying choices based on the sustainable practices of the business they choose to frequent. Just blaming the business for the waste created by the service that their customers choose to use is just kicking the can down the road. If we chose to shop at businesses with sustainable practices or buy products with more sustainable packaging it would create a clear financial incentive for other businesses to follow suit.

on the sunshine coast, we introduced composting service. my family of three produces about one large bag every 2 weeks (plus extras due to ongoing renos). it made a huge difference!

Some plastic is recyclable. Not sure what you're getting at.

You really should thought

I think what they're worried about is sort of like giving a hypothermic person hard alcohol to "warm" them up. It masks the real problem and can result in real harm. If we get caught up in these small victories , which I agree are good, we may lose sight of some of the heavy lifting we need to do to make real change. Many corporations rely on misdirection and topic fatigue to keep from having to do anything of real substance.

I agree with you but I also think the large companies seem to always get away with this and it's the consumers that have to do all the work.

It of course depends on the product. Clothing tends to be individually wrapped for example. Some foods are actually not too bad because they come in a big box or crate. Manufacturing creates a good bit. Some places use way more plastic than they ever used to; look at how silage bales are done these days. There's also the tons of stuff thrown away by stores instead of being discounted or donated; it's of items that are returned just go straight to the bin, never mind seasonal items that are just disposed of.

My point is we keep putting the target on the little things that are more visible, the danger being that this makes the public perception of the progress made inaccurate and is sort of a "green washing" diversion.

Then go after both problems?

Big cities in Canada should also charge inefficient vehicles operating within urban centers (downtown Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal). In other places, this is enforced by license plate registration and discourages the operation of inefficient vehicles within downtown urban areas.

Indeed. And just because I was feeling snarky and annoyed about the 15 cent charge, I asked for extra napkins one time and they gave me enough extra paper napkins to easily have made a paper bag out of. The burger comes in its own cardboard box. The fries have their own cardboard box. It's such a silly and pointless thing that's clearly just being done so that they can say they're "doing something."