Is the Food Delivery Business Polluting Our Planet?

Since the pandemic, we’ve had to adjust our lifestyle, our habits and daily patterns. With the closure of many businesses including restaurants, we could no longer gather to socialize with friends and family. Instead, many of us who still wanted to enjoy dishes from our favourite local restaurants, opted for take out and food delivery.

Many flocked to online food ordering apps like Uber Eats, DoorDash, Ritual, Skip the Dishes, Fantuan and Chow Bus for convenience and access to the wide range of eateries during our quarantine period. 

By April 2020, restaurants saw a shift in their business model. For example, for full-service restaurants, 28% of their sales were generated by food ordering apps by 2020. These same shifts from dine-in to take out, delivery and pick up or drive thrus were experienced by all types of food service including quick service (fast foods). More people ordering take-out or food delivery means more demand for food packaging.

Why the Shift to Food Delivery? 

For those who shifted from remote working during the pandemic, life just got so much busier balancing work, family and house chores. With school aged kids now doing online education at home and young kids using the home as their daycare and playground, suddenly life is chaotic with no time to eat, clean or even sleep. 

The separation between work and home became blurred and many of us found ourselves working later and longer hours. So, ordering food was a relief, providing more convenience and less cleaning. With all the money saved from staying home, most of us reallocated our budgets to buying food and groceries online or through delivery apps.

More demand for food delivery means more demand for food packaging. Though many restaurants have converted to more eco friendly food packaging and containers recently, some still use plastic and styrofoam. This became a real dilemma for our environment. 

The Price of Convenience 

Plastics production and manufacturing is a $35 billion dollar a year industry in Canada with packaging being one of the 3 major categories showing growth in demand. The hospitality sector which includes hotels, restaurants and resorts, are one of the biggest contributors to single-use plastic waste in our environment. 

In Canada, plastic packaging accounts for almost half of the 3.2 million tonnes thrown out each year. According to a study conducted by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in 2019, 86% of the plastics consumed end up in landfills and only 9% are recycled. 

Packaging creates pollution and governments, such as Canada, now consider and classify plastics as “toxic”. According to Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA), substances that harm the environment, biodiversity, human health or both are considered toxic and will fall under strict regulations in order to mitigate the externalities it creates on the environment. 

Why is Non-Biodegradable Packaging the Choice? 

The cost of convenience now will most certainly be a price the next generation will pay later. Plastic based food packaging is, indeed, a readily accessible, familiar and relatively cheap material that offers durability and practicality for the hospitality industry. But the harm that these choices make on our environment is multi-generational and far reaching. 

The restaurant industry is composed of many small independently owned restaurants. A good portion are likely family run and owners are not sophisticated business people. They may not even be aware of the consequences of their choices in packaging materials. Restaurateurs are only thinking about their bottomline and how much more profit they can make now with cheaper materials. 

Plastic based materials have been used for decades for food preservation and with this established network of suppliers and distributors, it’s no wonder plastic owns a large market share of the packaging industry. Its popularity and high demand creates economies of scale that reduce the price per unit and perpetually drives even more demand from buyers – the restaurant owners.

Why restaurateurs use plastic over biodegradable materials may also be attributed to the fact that they may not even know of alternatives. They may be choosing the food packaging only based on the limited options presented to them by distributors that knock on their door. These distributors and suppliers may be incentivized to promote sales of certain types of materials that offer higher margins and returns for their business.

Is Sustainable Packaging The Best Choice?

Sustainable packaging has proven to be just as effective in keeping food warm or fresh as plastic or styrofoam. Just look at pizza boxes. Pizza outlets (including large chains like Dominos and Panago) have been using cardboard boxes, far more earth friendly and biodegradable than plastic containers, to keep pizza warm for food delivery for decades. 

So you must wonder why some restaurants continue to use plastic when biodegradable versions do the job of keeping food warm and fresh during the delivery process (refer to the reasons outlined above). Access, cost, lack of education and convenience are factors that drive demand for non sustainable packaging. 

Key Takeaways

As an industry, the switch from plastic to sustainable food packaging has not been quick nor without resistance. Lack of awareness and education about sustainability contribute to the types of decisions being made by restaurateurs. 

Governments are stepping in to curb the demand for single use non recyclable plastic products. But we don’t have to wait for policies and regulations to be implemented before we can start our journey towards zero waste. 

Buyers (like restaurants) and end consumers (like us) have a significant role to play. We create the demand that drives the supply side to produce more. We can tackle the problem from the other side of the equation by demanding less of the bad stuff and more of the sustainable products. We need to be better educated about the impact our choices are making on our environment and educate more people along the way. 

At the end of the day, it is not the delivery companies that are the source of the problem. They are only the intermediaries providing the service from the businesses to the consumers. The source of the problem lies with the restaurant industry. Just as retailers need to pay attention to the materials they are offering their customers, restaurants need to be aware that every plastic container that leaves their restaurant on its way to the customer ends up in the landfill.