HALIFAX—Although most Canadians are anxious to reduce waste from plastic food packaging, they don’t want to pay for change.

That’s one of the key take-aways from a study by the Agri-food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, released on Thursday.

The study, titled “The single-use plastics dilemma: perceptions and possible solutions,” reports that 89.8 per cent of respondents believe plastic packaging should be replaced by green alternatives but not if costs are passed along to consumers.

A tax to discourage consumption of food covered in single-use plastic packaging was considered acceptable by 52.9 per cent of respondents.

“I think everyone wants the plastics problem to go away, but who’s going to pay? Here in New Orleans, for example, there are tons of packaging companies offering great solutions,” explained Dalhousie University professor and study co-author Sylvain Charlebois in a phone interview from Louisiana.

“There are edible bar codes on produce skin like cucumbers and avocados, and you’re seeing compostable, even edible packaging being presented here. But all of these solutions cost anywhere between 20 and 50 per cent more.”

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Charlebois said the seed for the study was planted when colleague and co-author Tony Walker approached him, wondering whether people cared about the overwhelming use of plastic in the food industry.

“It’s probably the No. 1 issue affecting most companies in the food industry right now,” Charlebois said. “Everyone is struggling to find a sustainable solution to this problem, and some have actually gone ahead with a sort of quick and dirty solution, like Metro in Quebec for example.”

On April 22, the Metro grocery chain in Quebec began allowing customers to bring their own reusable containers to buy food products from its deli, meat, fish, seafood, pastry and ready-to-eat meal counters.

“When you look at what’s happening and what people are expecting, Metro’s solution is just the start. The problem is that you can’t see pathogens and allergens, and so people are concerned about that,” Charlebois explained.

“It’s a bit of a moral contract that Metro has signed with its customers, and frankly I don’t think that there’s any appetite for other companies to follow suit.”

The Dalhousie University study also determined that while 89.9 per cent of respondents believe regulations to reduce single-use plastic packaging should be strengthened, 83.3 per cent are unwilling to pay their retailer any more than 2.5 per cent extra for a food product with green packaging alternatives.

“Food safety has no currency in the marketplace. No one wants to pay more for food safety. It’s like buying a car with a seatbelt,” Charlebois said. “No one wants to pay more for that shiny-looking seatbelt. They’re expecting the seatbelt to come with the car. That’s food safety.”

When it comes to consumers’ willingness to pay more for an item containing biodegradable packaging, only 37.7 per cent of the study’s respondents were ready to fork out extra cash. The majority of those were younger Canadians born between 1980 and 1994.

“I’m not convinced that Canadians actually understand why we’ve been using plastics in the first place and how plastics have actually played a vital role in food safety, food waste and all of these things we’re concerned about,” Charlebois said.

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“To replace plastics is not an easy thing to do. Canadians have benefitted from plastics. It has kept our cost of food down.”

The study also showed regional differences in attitudes. Among those who wanted an outright ban, the highest support was found in the Atlantic region where 79.2 per cent were in favour, followed by B.C. where 75.2 per cent of respondents supported a ban.

The Prairies were the least likely to favour a ban, with only 61.1 per cent in favour.

“It’s in the Atlantic and B.C. where people not only are mostly aware, they’re willing to pay a little more than the average Canadian because we see the problem; we’re next to the ocean,” Charlebois said. “We see the islands of plastic, and our current course is not sustainable with plastics. Central Canada is obviously aware and concerned but not as much as the Atlantic Provinces or B.C.”

Charlebois said mandatory bans aren’t an option he encourages because they can lead to other problems. He points out the shelf life of food products in compostable packaging is much shorter and could result in more food waste. In fact, the study found only 30.8 per cent of respondents would purchase food packaged in biodegradable material.

“These things need to change, but this is a journey. It’s not just ‘Let’s get rid of plastics,’” he said. “You just need to give the industry and policies a little bit more time.”

The study also reported that 56.6 per cent of respondents intend to increase their food purchases with nonplastic, green packaging. A majority of respondents, 66.67 per cent, believe all three levels of government are responsible for acting and addressing the plastics issue in Canada.

A majority, 61.8 per cent, felt all industry sectors — food retailers and grocers, food manufacturers and food services and restaurants — should be accountable.

“Our broader conversation around plastics has to include consumers in the end. We are all responsible. What’s really fascinating about the whole issue of single-use plastics is this is really new and this has come really, really fast,” Charlebois said.

“I think that both industry and governments were ill-prepared to deal with this issue. There needs to be more exchange between industry and consumers. Industry will actually be able to comply to consumers’ expectations much more quickly than governments.”

The study’s recommendations include harmonizing food safety regulations with environmental obligations, encouraging the use of recyclable material like cardboard, paper and foil wrapping, as well as increased support for research and commercialization of compostable packaging.

The study sample included 1,014 Canadians surveyed between May 13 to 18, 2019. The margin of error is 3.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Yvette d’Entremont is a Halifax-based reporter focusing on health. Follow her on Twitter: @ydentremont

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