Reusable Food Packaging

Having a family of four, I keep thinking it’s unsustainable how much recycling and waste we create. Even as someone who is actively looking to reduce the packaging we buy -- between groceries, small amounts of take-out, and school lunches—it really adds up. We are now feeding a teenager, so buying in bulk is key – but it’s frustrating that most bulk buys come with more packaging than buying smaller quantities, especially when it comes to produce. I’m left trying to figure out how policies, business practices, and public opinion can shift so that I don’t have to always choose convenience or cost over sustainability.

Part of the problem is definitely structural. In Canada, single-use packaging is the easy, cheap choice. Manufacturers don’t generally pay the full cost of the life cycle of the packaging they choose to use. Handling the cost of its disposal, litter, or environmental harm is left to municipalities and taxpayers. And yes, recycling systems are evolving, with new producer responsibility regulations coming into effect in Saskatchewan but recycling still uses energy and doesn’t necessarily reduce the need for new resources.

When Terracycle’s Loop program was announced in 2019, I had high hopes it would make its way from the pilot areas in Ontario to here in Saskatchewan. The program was designed to offer familiar brand name foods in returnable, reusable packaging. Loop’s pilot efforts showed promise, but ran into hurdles: logistics (like how to collect, clean, redistribute), cost, consumer participation, and regulatory barriers. Canada lacks a strong national policy forcing manufacturers to design for reuse or providing widespread incentives for such systems. As far as I can tell, Loop has pulled back and is now offered only in France and Japan.

When the Canadian Government came out with a federal ban on single-use plastics in 2022, I was hopeful that it might help make a shift at the grocery store. However, the Single-Use Plastics Prohibition Regulations (SUPR) only applied to smaller items (checkout bags, cutlery, food service ware made of problematic plastics, ring carriers, stir sticks, non-flexible straws). It was a step in the right direction, but it hasn’t tackled the larger issue of one-way consumer food packaging.

In contrast, programs like Loop are flourishing in France, thanks to their Anti-Waste and Circular Economy Law and 3R Decree. The decree required that, by in April, 2022, producers meet legal minimum reuse targets. Because of this regulatory mandate, companies are starting to change their systems. Three retail chains now offer everyday items in durable, returnable/ refillable packaging through Loop. Reusable packages include glass yogurt pots, aluminum containers for dishwasher tablets, glass and plastic beverage bottles and more.

Customers pay a deposit on the package and get that deposit back when they return the empty container (either at a dedicated return unit in the store, via a mobile app-based drop-off, or at checkout). Loop then handles collection, cleaning/sanitizing, and redistribution back to the manufacturers. Thanks to the regulation, the program has the momentum to continue.

We are starting to see how policy could create the same momentum in Canada. One of the more encouraging examples is Banff, Alberta. In 2024, Banff introduced its Single-Use Items Reduction Strategy, including bans or fees on plastic shopping bags, requirements that food service businesses offer reusable foodware for dine-in, and a “borrow a bag” or “borrow a cup” program. That means if you’re eating in, you’ll see real reusable items; if you need a bag or cup and forgot one, the borrow program gives you a clean reusable one to return. That kind of infrastructure + regulation + public buy-in seems to work better than voluntary or symbolic efforts.

We also know that reuse can work in western Canada on a larger scale. Brewers Distributors Ltd, a joint venture between Molson’s and Labatt’s brewing, has long had a cost-effective reusable beer bottle return program. It’s a prime example that when you get the right mix of standardized packaging, a good deposit/refund system, high volume sales and regulatory requirements, it can work -- even here on the prairies.

If Canada can broaden policies beyond the narrow scope of current bans, invest in reuse systems, and build infrastructure that works for both cities and rural areas, we could shift from patchwork local policies or industries to a national system. Without those, Saskatchewan’s wide geography and small population density mean we wouldn’t see these changes for quite some time. With them, we may see a future where refill stations and reusable packaging are common parts of grocery stores and food service, where depositing/refunding is just as natural as paying taxes, and single-use is the exception, not the default. For families like mine, that future can help us eat sustainably and affordably.