Food and plastic waste have gained considerable amounts of global attention over the past 4-5 years, but did you know that these two problems are linked? Most of plastic waste is related to food. The Institute for European Environmental Policy suggests that in certain cases plastic packaging actually increases food waste. For example, “Multi-pack offerings can lead consumers to buy more than they can eat, while fixed package sizes stemming from aggressive retail standards limit the amount of produce items selected for shipment (with the rest wasted on the farm).” We must get better at increasing the reusability of plastic packaging and increasing recycle rate. Steven Finn, Vice President of Food Waste Prevention, states, “The most impactful step we can take is to prevent plastic waste from happening in the first place — this often starts with first preventing food waste.
