and/or biodegradable materials used in our packaging and containers. But there are potential issues with both of these solutions. Recycling has a high energetic cost in itself in terms of sorting and transportation, and many case studies have found that it costs significantly more than landfill disposal. For instance, a case study in Nova Scotia found that recycling programs there cost $18 million more per year than landfill disposal. Of course, there are energetic savings from recycling a material versus generating from virgin materials, but this is dependent on a case-by-case basis. If these programs are well maintained and there is very little recycling material going into a landfill, then these programs can eventually be effective. However, Austin Resource Recovery has found that even within Austin, 40% of materials that can be recycled are not properly disposed of, sending unnecessary waste to landfills. In these situations,
recycling processes are actually significantly expensive and do not offset their cost with their benefits.
Another issue arises with compost, which is actually still a fantastic solution to the problem. Firstly, most bioplastics that are biodegradable and compostable are actually taken from feedstock, creating an ethical and moral dilemma (although this argument has its drawbacks, as even with our current food production, if none of it was wasted, there would be more than enough to feed everyone). Furthermore, compost still has a significant ecological footprint. Most current bioplastics are only compostable in industrial systems and must be collected and transported. For example, the carbon footprint of collecting, transporting, and distributing 5 tons of compost is roughly equal to the cost of growing, handling, and transporting 5 tons of bananas. Compost may
be more effective on a smaller scale, but this is more difficult in urban areas where there is little space for each area to have its own smaller scale compost.
It can be inferred that the most eco-friendly method is to not generate any food related waste in the first place. Reusable containers are not an easy solution to implement in today’s world, as can be seen by the relative inefficiencies of packaging free grocery stores. Furthermore, there are always end of life issues with reusables, as so many of them are already plastic based and not properly recycled.
That brings us to the most practical solution of all: if we were able to just not generate any food related trash in the first place (both food waste and food related packaging and disposable containers). Our research deals