With pressure growing on retailers to unwrap the plastics on fresh fruit and vegetables, there is a new debate about what is the greater evil — plastic or food waste?
One major supermarket, Woolworths, has responded to community pressure and removed packaging from its fruit and vegetables.
Paul Turner, Woolworths’ head of fresh produce, said the company had removed the plastic wrapping from organic bananas.
He said there was still packaging on a kids’ banana range, but it was recyclable packaging.
“There are always opportunities to use less plastic, but the question is, ‘How do we reduce food waste as well?'” he said.
Woolworths also uses shrink-wrap around continental cucumbers.
“When you take the plastic off continental cucumbers their shelf life is significantly shortened, which can lead to more food waste,” Mr Turner said.
Finding the balance
Food scientist Felicity Denham said packaging such as that on continental cucumbers gave people more time to eat the vegetable, reducing food waste.
A study by a team of Indian scientists found shrink wrapping cucumbers increased the shelf life by six days.
Dr Denham said plastic was a problem, but plastic also worked to increase the shelf life.
“You’ve got to weigh up the differences between plastic waste and food waste,” Dr Denham said.
She said while plastics did not break down in landfill, food waste did but it also produced carbon dioxide and methane, which were dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.
“So it depends what type of environmental impact you’re concerned about, do you want to have solid landfill or greenhouse gas emissions?” Dr Denham said.
Plastic wrapping for cut salad leaves
At an innovation in horticulture conference at the University of Tasmania last week, scientists were looking at issues like shelf life and packaging for fresh fruit and vegies.
Dr Denham, who is in the preliminary stages of measuring the environmental impact of leafy salad vegetable waste and its packaging, said she had been encouraged by what she had seen so far.
With fresh-cut salads, Mr Turner said it was not possible to get away from using plastic, and he said the question was more about reusing the plastic so it did not go into landfill.
“It’s about balance. If you look at the food waste in the chain where we have food waste going into landfill, the carbon footprint to produce that product and get it into the food chain is sometimes a greater impact than the plastic in landfill,” Mr Turner said.
Dr Denham’s study did not look at what the consumer did with the plastic from the end product.
“Some people would like plastic to be removed completely from stores, but we are in an age where ready-to-eat products are popular and plastic is sometimes necessary to protect the product,” Dr Denham said.
She said packaging that was both biodegradable and reusable might be the best option for the future.
What about composting food waste?
Dr Denham said while home composting of food waste was an option for some people, it would still produce carbon dioxide and methane, but this was a better option than throwing food in landfill.
She said she has not measured the actual carbon footprint of composting but said at least the compost had a use.
“If it’s going to give emissions anyway, it’s best to put it in the compost and utilise the nutrients from food waste, potentially replacing chemicals used in the garden,” Dr Denham said.