Scottish foodservice businesses are to run a series of trials using reusable alternatives to single-use plastic items that will soon be banned.
Fish and chip shops will promote new reusable packaging and charge for single-use containers. Ice-cream parlours will offer edible spoons. Coffee shops will use discounts to entice more people to use reusable cups, while tearooms will remove disposable sauce sachets.
Malvarosa, an Edinburgh-based tapas restaurant, will introduce a new deposit return scheme (DRS) for reusable food containers. The move follows an increase in its takeaway sales in the past 18 months. “The recent ban on problematic single-use items by the Scottish government is a very welcome step, but there isn’t enough guidance available to businesses on what is the most environmentally friendly alternative,” said owner Alvaro Bernabeu.
The ‘Ditching disposables’ pilots were originally launched in March 2020. They were delayed due to the pandemic, which left foodservice businesses closed for long periods. Their revival comes as businesses face market restrictions on a number of single-use plastic items.
From June, Scotland will ban a range of single-use plastic items: plastic cutlery (forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks), plates, straws, beverage stirrers and balloon sticks; food containers made of expanded polystyrene; and cups and other beverage containers made of expanded polystyrene, including their covers and lids. This is broadly in line with the EU Single-use Plastics Directive.
In England, the government is currently consulting on banning the supply of single-use plastic plates, cutlery, balloon sticks, and expanded and extruded polystyrene cups and food and beverage containers. A separate call for evidence on tackling other commonly littered plastics such as wet wipes, tobacco filters, sachets and other single-use cups, was also launched in December.
Some experts have suggested the bans will do little to accelerate more sustainable use of resources or circular economy thinking. Indeed, the impact assessments done to date suggest most companies will simply switch to other single-use materials.
The trials in Scotland are therefore designed to encourage reusable alternatives to everything covered by the new market restrictions. “We’re working directly with business owners and their customers, at the ground level, to give them the right tools to find alternatives to disposables,” said Iain Gulland, chief executive at Zero Waste Scotland, which is overseeing the £1m scheme.
Footprint will soon publish a new report on foodservice packaging. For more details contact Charlie@footprint.london.
