Two of the biggest industries in Louisiana are chemicals and food. That's why Martha Holmgren asked Curious Louisiana why restaurants and bars don't use more biodegradable materials for their packaging, instead of plastic and polystyrene.
She is frustrated that cities in other states seem to have made strides in getting rid of single-use plastics, in comparison to Louisiana cities. For example, Boston, Chicago and Boulder, Colorado, all have plastic bag bans and/or charge retailers fees if they use them.
"A lot of places north of us have made huge strides, where you cannot use disposable plastic things. They're just not allowed," Holmgren said. "I think it's important, that we as people who have industries that create a lot of pollutants, that we be extra careful."
In 2018, the United States produced 14.5 million tons of plastic containers and packaging and put 10 million tons of plastic into landfills, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These include bottles, jugs, cups and lids, bags and polystyrene packaging, aka Styrofoam.
According to the plastics industry association, there are 8,901 people employed by plastics manufacturers in Louisiana. Texas and Ohio, the two top plastics industry employers, each have 70,000 people working in plastics.
Data is scant
There isn't any statistical data on how many restaurants in Louisiana use sustainable packaging, but some do — including the New Orleans-based taco stand Barracuda. Other restaurants and packaging companies The Times-Picayune reached out to could not respond in time for print.
However, in 2019, researcher Shea O'Neil studied how small restaurants in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, might move away from plastic usage. She found that the biggest barriers for small restaurants were cost and the owners not being interested in sustainability.
According to the study, sustainable packaging could cost twice as much as single-use packaging, not including an uptick in recycling or waste management fees.
O'Neil also found that, in restaurants that already use sustainable packaging, the owners' personal values were the biggest motivator, followed by consumer demand. She noted one restaurant owner who started using sustainable to-go packaging after a negative Yelp review accompanied by a picture of a polystyrene container.
A future focus?
In 2021, 6,000 restaurant operators from the American Culinary Federation and 1,000 customers ranked a list of 109 food items and culinary concepts for the National Restaurant Association that they predicted would be the focus of restaurants in 2022. The item that climbed to the top of this list was sustainable packaging, including reusable and recyclable packaging.
"Sustainability and eco-friendly opportunities continue to be a priority for the foodservice industry," said B. Hudson Riehle, the association's research and knowledge group senior vice president. "More restaurant patrons, especially younger customers, have grown up with sustainability-related information and now look for restaurants incorporating eco-friendly practices."
Holmgren said she hopes that, if restaurants and bars use packaging that can naturally degrade, Louisiana residents won't have to navigate recycling. Her own town of St. Francisville has stopped picking up recycling, as have other Louisiana cities.
New Orleans also had a pause on recycling pickups but resumed Nov. 7. Many other Louisiana cities and towns still accept recycling drop-offs even if they aren't picking up recyclables.
Recycling hurdles
Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality spokesperson Gregory Langley agreed that recycling in Louisiana has grown difficult. Cities have different guidelines, with some of them accepting fewer types of plastics than others.
And when items that are dirty or not recyclable end up in the recycling bin, everything with it must be thrown in the trash.
Langley said recycling in many Louisiana cities has slowed down because China, where most of the United States sent its recycling, stopped accepting plastic waste in 2018.
"The market is just really not there," he said. "So, for the end product, a lot of it, after it goes to the recycling centers, may even get separated out and wind up in the landfill anyway."