A shift from single-use recyclable packaging to reusables in the informal eating-out sector could have detrimental effects on the environment, the economy and food safety, according to a new study commissioned by McDonald’s.
The EU’s packaging and packaging waste regulation (PPWR), tabled in November last year, introduces a ban on single-use packaging for dine-in restaurants from 1 January 2030.
It also includes targets to expand the use of reusable packaging for takeaway consumption in two steps: 10% by 2030 and 40% by 2040.
However, the study by Kearney, a consulting firm, found the move will inevitably lead to a surge in plastics to replace the paper bags, wrappers, or pizza boxes currently used in takeaway restaurants and small eateries.
For dine-in consumption, Kearney estimates total plastic packaging waste would increase by “up to 300%”. For takeaway consumption “plastic packaging waste will sharply increase by more than 1,500%”, the study found.
Reusable packaging for dine-in would also need to be washed every time, requiring 1 to 4 billion litres of additional water, while raising new challenges related to hygiene and food safety, it says.
In turn, this is expected to generate extra greenhouse gas emissions linked to the production of new plastic items and energy used to wash the reusable packaging – by up to 50% for dine-in and up to 260% for take-away, the study found.
The Kearney study focuses on the informal eating out (IEO) sector, which includes restaurant chains like McDonald’s and Starbucks but also small eateries like the local kebab or chip shop.
It is “a small but very visible sector” because their food wrappers “may sometimes be found on the street” when people throw them away, said Johan Aurik who supervised the study for Kearney.
The informal eating out sector is currently heavily reliant on paper-based packaging like folding cartons, pizza boxes, paper bags, napkins and cups. In total, 56% of all packaging in those restaurants are made from board, 24% from paper and only 7% from plastics while the remainder is made from mixed materials.
“Everyone is in agreement that there is a serious problem” with packaging waste, Aurik said at a press briefing in Brussels earlier this week.
The question, he added, is how best to tackle it. And while reusable packaging may be the best solution in some cases, “for this sector it is not the right thing to do”.
McDonald’s weighs in
McDonald’s, the US fast-food chain multinational, says the shift to reusable plastics will revert years of effort to eliminate plastic from its restaurants, which are now “almost entirely” using fibre and paper-based packaging.
“We largely exited plastics from our restaurants,” McDonald’s executive vice-president Jon Banner told journalists in Brussels, adding that reusable solutions will mean additional costs for the sector.
To be economically and environmentally viable, “a reusable cup for example would need to be returned and reused 50 to 100 times,” Banner said. “And we know already that this is not really happening” in the informal eating out sector, he added.
“Of course, the idea of reuse seems like the obvious solution. But it’s more complicated than that,” he continued.
In Germany for instance, McDonald’s has been required by law to supply reusable cups to customers who demand them, even for takeaway meals. Yet, about 70% of those are never returned, even though clients are requested to pay a €2 deposit, the Kearney study found.
“It could end up in the garbage or landfill or being reused at home – we don’t know,” Banner said.
According to the report, the first priority should be to scale up recycling infrastructure for dine-in, while reusables should not be implemented for takeaway at all.
Source : euractiv
