If you’re worried about plastic pollution, you’ve likely felt exasperated unpacking your reusable bag after a trip to the grocery store. There is still WAY too much throwaway plastic wrapped around our food. And if you’re thinking the grocery sector is headed the wrong way when it comes to wasteful plastic packaging, you’re right. Our updated survey of the major retailers’ shelves proves it.

When we first surveyed key shelves in stores of the major grocery chains across Canada in the fall of 2022, we found that more than 70 per cent of products that were recently packaged in cans, jars or paper, or sold loose, were in plastic packaging. One of the most striking tallies was on the baby food shelf, where 76 per cent of foods were packaged in plastic.

Over the course of a couple of weeks this past August, we sent auditors back to 13 stores owned by the major chains – Loblaw, Empire, Metro and Walmart – to follow up on our original survey. They scanned the products in the produce section and the soups and baby food aisles. Sadly, they found even more plastic than before. 

The amount of plastic on the baby food and soup shelves is up while there is no measurable drop in the plastic wrapped around fruits and vegetables.

What’s more, the vast majority of the packaging on the shelves is not widely recycled in Canada. From mesh bags and foam trays to plastic pouches, the most commonly found packaging is destined for landfills or incinerators – if it doesn’t blow directly into the environment before it gets there. And let’s not forget that packaging is the number one source of plastic waste in Canada.

The answers to all this throwaway plastic are clear: 

• No packaging for sturdy fruits and vegetables, especially those that come in their own peels or shells (how are we still wrapping coconuts in plastic?)
• Refillable containers so we don’t have to treat packaging as garbage 

The good news is that reusable packaging is coming, including at the major grocery retailers. Empire, Metro and Walmart are all participating in a new program in Ottawa to replace single-use plastic takeout containers with reusable ones. Customers buying prepared foods at the deli counter will get them in a sturdy reusable container to be returned to any participating store, restaurant or café. It is then sent for cleaning at a local washing facility before it is put back on the shelf for the next customer.

We urgently need more reuse systems like this for many more of our grocery items. We should be able to return all kinds of packaging to the grocery store so that it can be sanitized and refilled.

That’s why it’s important to support the federal government’s proposal to require grocery chains to reduce their single-use plastic food packaging. Our audits show that the major retailers are not moving enough to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic packaging on their own – shameful evidence that rules are needed to reign in plastic.

The good news is that people in Canada support elimination of plastic packaging in the grocery store. If you’re in Ottawa,  we urge you to embrace the shift to reusables now on offer in grocery stores and cafés. You can find out more and download the app here. As for the rest of Canada, it’s time to demand change in your grocery store!