#plasticfree: A bowl of soup instead of packet soup
David has become very interested in the plastic-free life. He read blogs and papers and exchanged tips with friends. Where possible, he only buys pasta, rice and flour at a zero-waste store. It takes him half an hour on his bike to get there and he has to take a number of containers, meaning that his shopping trip must be planned in advance. David, therefore, does still go to conventional supermarkets, albeit with a guilty conscience due to all the packaged goods.
Since reading recently that tap water is healthier than most bottled or mineral water, David bought himself a soda maker, which turns tap water into fizzy water. David also hasn't used to-go cups or plastic packaging for his lunch in ages. Instead, he likes to drink his coffee from his stainless-steel cup and use his reusable box for lunch.
His friends were quite astonished when he told them that there’s even a plastic-free alternative to toothpaste: David goes to the unpackaged store and puts toothpaste powder in a jar; he can then dip his moistened wooden toothbrush into it and can brush his teeth.
David continues to read about the topic and is amazed that he can always reduce his plastic consumption further. Most recently, he has found a replacement for cling film: ironed cloths, which are soaked in beeswax.
1. The problem: Plastic is convenient
While the use of disposable packaging was originally intended for exceptional situations, such as eating away from home, its convenience has become integrated in our daily lives over time. However, the "time saved" by using such packaging is often completely exhausted by other stressful or environmentally harmful activities. Convenience is, however, also an important factor for consumers giving that it condenses and accelerates everyday activities, leaving more time for work, journeying or alternative leisure activities. The success of convenience foods is thus a symptom of a lifestyle optimised from the point of view of efficiency. This even comes to include our personal food intake.
In this way, portioned foods packaged in disposable plastics have developed into a social mass phenomenon in recent years. To date, a total of 80 to 90 percent of all foods reach the market, and therefore consumers, in a prepared form.
Ready-to-eat-meals, cheese, sausage slices and fruit yoghurts are typical representatives of such prepared products. Convenience foods can both be seen as pioneers and as consequences of our modern lifestyles: a basic pattern of our society is acceleration, which is the basis for the efficiency of production and consumption processes.
No preparation, no washing-up
A key feature is the so-called "ready-to-eat" principle, which relieves eaters of almost all preparation processes. These meals are also popular because they can be prepared without large kitchen equipment. Thanks to the disposable packaging, washing up is no longer necessary. Hardly any other material can offer so many time-saving and relieving properties, while also being cheap.
A further problem is "littering", i.e. throwing away packaging into the environment. For retailers, disposable packaging is convenient and profitable. Buyers, on the other hand, perceive used packaging as a burden that they want to get rid of as easily as possible. In this sense, littering can also be interpreted as a particularly trenchant form of convenience and carelessness.
In the trap
Nowadays there is even a certain dependence on convenience food: The consumption of convenience food has led to knowledge about food and its preparation getting lost or not being passed on to the next generation. This goes hand in hand with a decline in the appreciation for freshly cooked food.
The result is a so-called lock-in effect: consumers are literally caught in the convenience trap of the consumption of convenience foods and the resulting lifestyle adjustments. Many consumers accept that packaged food is often less healthy than freshly prepared food: For one due to additives such as preservatives, flavour enhancers and colorants being incorporated, and on the other hand because the preparation methods can destroy important nutrients.
Too many different plastics
Aside from lifestyle factors, there are many other reasons for using disposable packaging. The marketing and logistics of food manufacturers and retailers promote the diversity of materials, shapes and colours for complex packaging made of different materials. These are difficult to separate from one another, making high-quality recycling considerably more difficult.
2. Solutions for a plastic-free future
In order to reduce the burden on the environment, consumers should ask themselves with every piece of disposable plastic they hold in their hands: How could I avoid this waste next time?
Zero-waste/ No-packaging Shops
Luckily, some solutions to this problem are already available: Numerous cities now have no-packaging shops, whilst conventional supermarkets are also starting to offer no-packaging options. These shops offer their complete selection range or at least a number of products separately and in an unpackaged manner. Customers are then meant to bring their own containers from home and fill their own quantities or have them filled by sales staff at the fresh food counters. This concept is particularly suitable for dry products such as fruit, vegetables, pasta, rice, pulses, cereals, coffee, tea and confectionery.
Consumers who bring their own packaging with them, however, currently still have additional costs due to the advance planning and transport of the containers. In the foreseeable future, however, this effort will be reduced with more and more unpackaged shops developing professional logistical structures and thus being easier to reach. Likewise, the range of unpackaged goods will also expand. Through the standardisation of reusable containers and cooperations between no-packaging business models and delivery services, shopping will become easier for customers. One such system could be goods delivered in reusable containers by freight bike and empty containers are taken away again.
Fresh and self-prepared food is valuable
The main impulse that will reduce disposable plastic packaging in the future is the new appreciation for freshly prepared food. One stimulus for this is the increasing awareness that highly processed foods not only cause far too much plastic waste but can also be harmful to health. Many people now feel a sense of personal responsibility because the consumption of disposable packaged food is considered one of the main causes of environmental pollution from plastic waste. The German Nutrition Report might have shown that it is important for one in two people to be able to prepare food quickly and easily, yet more than 90 percent of those surveyed agree on the good taste and the quality of the food being indispensable. Almost three-quarters of people - according to their own statements - like to prepare their own meals.
Media and education
There is a great need for practicable ideas on how to do without disposable packaging in everyday life. Many people now regard freshly prepared food as an attractive lifestyle choice. This notion is also being promoted by more and more influencers in social networks, for example under #healthynutrition, #healthyfood.
Cooking shows on TV give viewers tips on how to prepare fresh food in a time-saving way and how to create new dishes from leftovers. In schools and adult education, children, young people and adults learn about the advantages of freshly prepared food and rediscover it anew.
Unpacked goods must be suitable for everyday use
More and more people feel a sense of slowing-down when cooking and baking and appreciate the social aspects of the culture of eating and enjoyment. Nevertheless, the energy-sapping demands of modern everyday life often pose an obstacle to realising these visions for the future. In order to make the use of unpackaged food suitable for everyday life, consumers must be relieved of the burden of coordinating, procuring and preparing the food. Hence, producers and retailers are trying to meet this demand by offering more and more high-quality food products that combine the predicates "low packaging" or "packaging-free" with the positive connotations of it also being "organic", "regional" and "healthy".
New cooperation and offers are in demand
To achieve this, new cooperation between actors is needed. One possible example is the previously described cooperation between no-packaging concepts and environmentally friendly delivery services. Another approach would be the integration of simple restaurants or bistros in zero-packaging shops and low-packaging supermarkets. In these gastronomic services, customers could eat meals that are prepared fast, but that are still fresh, healthy and made with unpackaged food. In addition to this, they could receive interesting recipe recommendations for cooking at home.
Low-energy cooking and meal prepping even saves time
Another aspect is also important for everyday environmentally friendly cooking: the energy-saving preparation of dishes. In order to reduce the energy requirement when preparing smaller quantities of food, larger quantities of a particular ingredient, such as pasta, potatoes or sauces, can be cooked. These can then be portioned and stored in returnable containers and be kept in the refrigerator or freezer. Aside from saving energy, this also saves time. Furthermore, cooks should make sure that the equipment required for preparation, such as the stove, oven and food processor, is as energy efficient as possible. The additional costs for the appliances are balanced relatively quickly when used frequently due to energy cost savings.
Political possibilities
Legal initiatives by the state can be used to support a change in consumer habits. An extension of the EU ban on disposable plastics to package material would help in this regard. In particular, a ban on disposable beverage bottles for mineral and bottled water would be a great help. However, such a ban should be coupled with an information and educational campaign on the consumption of tap water, showing the population that it is healthier than one would think and of better quality than most bottled or mineral water. This campaign should be supported by offering tap water free of charge in schools, universities and other public institutions!
Furthermore, legal requirements that increase the ability to recycle certain packaging would be helpful. At the same time, return systems and high-quality recycling of packaging should be consistently promoted. A further starting point for state intervention could be the taxation of packaging on the basis of the costs it is connected with through littering in soil and water, especially in the sea. In this way, it could finally be achieved that products offered in reusable packaging become cheaper than the corresponding products in disposable plastic packaging.
Six to eight types of returnable containers could replace most plastic packaging
An expansion of the reusable containers market could also be promoted by legal requirements for containers: It is possible, for instance, to replace the current, almost unmanageable variety of disposable packaging and containers with a system of six to eight differently standardized types of reusable containers. In this way it would not only be possible to reduce the consumption of disposable plastic packaging, but also of disposable glass packaging, which also has a relatively bad standing from an environmental point of view. When establishing these return systems, logistic systems should come into use to ensure that transport distances between manufacturers and retailers are as short as possible. The reusable containers should have a high level of circulation and hence of reuse, while containing a small amount of disposable components such as closures and labels.
Dr. Andreas Köhler, Moritz Mottschall and Martin Möller are senior researchers at Oeko-Institut in Freiburg and Berlin. As part of the donation-based project „Living without plastic – but how?“, they have been investigating the possibilities and effects of living without plastic. This includes an analysis of the reasons for using plastic, the experiences of consumers in avoiding plastic and alternative materials. The results of the project will be published in the Oeko-Institute blog under #plasticfree.