The Barriers Facing the Adoption of Compostable Biopolymers in the Canadian Food and Beverage Industry

Abstract

The food and beverage industry in Canada, generates large volumes of single-use plastic waste as a result of its packaging materials. Utilizing compostable bioplastics in food and beverage packaging can provide an improved environmental performance alternative to conventional fossil-based plastics. Recycling efforts across Canada have historically placed effort on conventional plastics recycling to capture and manage the ubiquitous single-use plastics. However, through industry research and policy review, this report shows that the conventional recycling approach fails to effectively manage this stream. The report supports the adoption of compostable bioplastics as a practical alternative, but understands that its success requires more coordinated and adopted standardized terminology, government regulations and policy incentives to provide the impetus for food and beverage manufacturers to shift towards the adoption of compostable bioplastics as a practical solution to addressing the environmental performance issues associated with fossil-based, single-use plastics.