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Even after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) sped up approval of the made-in-Europe BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, with a conditional green light delivered on December 21st, it’s clear Europe’s experience with Covid-19 has already altered daily life in ways likely to endure for years to come.
Among other shifts, teleworking has become a fact of life in industries and countries where it was practically non-existent prior to the pandemic, notably Italy and Spain. The travel market that saw low-cost carriers shuttle Europeans around the Schengen zone has cratered, forcing Norwegian Air to file for bankruptcy protection just last month. Major foodservice companies catering to office workers, such as Pret a Manger, have closed dozens of stores and cut thousands of jobs.
In fact, one of the most revolutionary changes wrought by Covid-19 may well be in how Europeans eat. In countries such as France, where the government was struggling to encourage the ‘doggy bag’ to reduce food waste just last year, demand for takeaway and food delivery has exploded. After restaurant closures in the spring initially left the sector grasping for a lifeline, confined customers ultimately came to embrace ordering from services such as Deliveroo.
With the new model of food delivery now firmly in place, the market for companies such as Uber Eats has kept growing, even after restaurants reopened. On the one hand, this is a rare silver lining for a continent whose economies have been buffeted by the health crisis. On the other hand, this marked shift in foodservice is a shot across the bow for the European Green Deal, spearheaded by the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
European restaurants sound the alarm
Just last year, the European Union adopted Directive (EU) 2019/904, otherwise known as the Single Use Plastics Directive, to structure EU efforts to reduce “the impact of certain plastic products on the environment.” As details of the Commission’s draft guidance to member states regarding this Directive have leaked, the foodservice sector has reacted with alarm.
Based on the sector’s reaction, the draft guidelines seem to point towards a ban on a large swath of single-use products, with a view towards forcing the uptake of reusable alternatives. In taking such a broad view of what constitutes unacceptable ‘single use plastic’, the Commission seems intent on preventing these industries from switching to more sustainable single-use choices, including fiber-based paper products. In doing so, it is directly challenging the model that has kept the restaurant industry afloat, instead pushing it towards additional costs at a time of extreme economic duress.
As the foodservice sector points out, there is a fundamental issue of hygiene and safety in phasing out single-use products, especially as global pandemics become a more regular occurrence. Reusable products, often held up by environmental campaigners as a panacea for issues like marine pollution, have the disadvantage of being reused by dozens, if not hundreds of different customers. As food researchers such as David McDowell of Ulster University have pointed out, restricting disposable products in the foodservice industry could expose customers to higher risks of cross-contamination from foodborne illnesses, including bacteria such as E. coli and listeria, as well as viruses.
Now, of course, customers using food delivery services prefer to avoid interacting with their delivery person at all, let alone sharing plates or cups used by other patrons. The warnings raised by experts such as McDowell have been echoed by the European Environment Agency, which admitted disposable products “have played an important role in preventing the spread of Covid-19,” even as it expressed concern over whether the surge in demand could undermine EU efforts to develop a “more sustainable and circular plastics system.”
Reducing plastic pollution while supporting the circular economy
European consumers share that concern. Per a DS Smith survey published in January, over 90% of customers in four European countries indicated they wanted packaging containing less plastic; over 60% said they would be willing to pay a premium for it. Fortunately, in sharp contrast to the Commission’s narrative, more sustainable single-use products could actually help solve the marine pollution crisis the Single Use Plastics Directive is meant to address.
Those alternatives chiefly include disposable fiber-based products, such as paper cups, plates, and boxes. While some of these products contain a minimal amount of plastic polymers, fiber-based packaging is by and large more widely recycled and ecologically sound than the plastic chiefly responsible for marine litter. As the UK’s Royal Statistical Society famously reported in 2018, over 90% of plastic waste ever generated has never been recycled. By contrast, nearly three-quarters of paper products get recycled on average in the EU.
Fiber can even claim advantages over reusable foodservice products, especially in carbon footprints and water usage. Any advantages reusable products might enjoy over single-use paper items in terms of carbon emissions depend on the number of times they can be reused. In the case of a ceramic cup, for example, the item would potentially need to be used as many as 350 times. In terms of “ecosystem quality indicators” such as acidification, those advantages can be quickly cancelled out by the hot water and detergents needed to wash reusable cups. Meanwhile, effective recycling of paper, increasingly the norm across Europe, reduces its footprint by over 50%.
The solution suggested by some advocates of reusables – namely, limiting washing – is out of the question for a foodservice industry responsible for protecting consumers from foodborne pathogens. Millions of Europeans now accustomed to takeaway and delivery expect the companies serving them – including countless small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the restaurant sector – to adhere to high standards of food safety and hygiene.
Sustainable, fiber-based alternatives to plastic for food packaging could meet that need without disrupting growth in the sector. Instead of adding to the restaurant industry’s already-considerable losses with a poorly executed approach to plastics, European regulators will likely soon realize the need to accept and encourage more sustainable single-use products that help the oceans without harming the economy.
