Sustainable food packaging is nothing new. Compostable and biodegradable alternatives to conventional plastic packaging have existed for several decades, but high production costs and limited scalability are perennial challenges. Biodegradable materials like polylactic acid (PLA) and starch-based bioplastics often lacked the strength or barrier properties required for food safety and shelf-life, making them impractical for many food packaging applications. Compounding the challenge was the lack of recycling or composting infrastructure capable of handling these materials. In Canada, new policies and regulatory targets seek to accelerate the transition from plastic food packaging.
Breakthroughs in materials
Plastic packaging thoroughly transformed our food system in the mid-20th century. The stuff became ubiquitous for a reason: it’s lightweight, durable, inexpensive, and flexible. It also helps reduce food loss and waste, meets stringent food safety standards, and integrates easily into established manufacturing operations.
Unfortunately, we have never scaled robust plastic recycling infrastructure, making plastic a profoundly damaging source of pollution, which is why we urgently need alternatives that compete with the utility of petroleum-based plastics. That is the problem Canadian innovators like Copol International are dedicated to solving. The North Sydney, N.S.-based company has partnered with the Verschuren Centre to develop multifunctional biopolymer food packaging applications. This includes a compostable cast polypropylene film, which will one day replace flexible plastic wrap while preserving its key benefits—lightweight, durable, safe for food, and cheap—in a way that earlier generations of bio-based materials could not.
Other engineering breakthroughs are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible from biodegradable materials.
For instance, Waterloo’s Nfinite Nanotech is creating nano-coatings to improve the utility of compostable packaging.
Biotechnology to close the loop
Creating better materials is only half of the sustainable packaging equation. What happens at the end of their functional life is equally important, which was a key challenge for early generations of sustainable packaging products. Composting and recycling facilities were ill-equipped to handle the influx of biopolymers that require highly specific conditions to process effectively. In most of the country, composting facilities were simply non-existent until quite recently, and even today many do not accept certified biodegradable materials.
As a result, compostable packaging materials ended up in landfills, almost entirely negating the potential environmental benefits.
Fortunately, advances in biotechnology are making it easier to process bioplastics appropriately. For example, Ottawa’s Food Cycle Science is developing enzyme-based technologies that can be added to commercial composting units to accelerate the breakdown of bioplastics.
Reinventing food packaging
Elsewhere, some innovators are demonstrating how we can move away from single-use food packaging entirely. In 2024, the Circular Innovation Council launched a reusable food container pilot in partnership with Vancouver-based Reusables and major grocers like Metro, Sobeys, and Walmart Canada in Ottawa. The program leverages Reusables’ smart return system to offer select products in reusable containers. The company’s sleek, IoT-enabled return bins, located at retailer and other neighbourhood locations, make container returns convenient and trackable.
What’s next
Despite incredible progress made by these innovators and many others across Canada, a food system free of single-use plastics is still almost impossible to imagine. Without it, our modern food system would cease to function. So, although a transition away from plastic packaging is an environmental and public health necessity, it remains a challenging task, and success is far from guaranteed. However, transformational change happens almost imperceptibly. It occurs as the right mix of regulatory alignment, consumer education, industry support, and technological innovation begin to coalesce.
Alex Barlow is vice president, programs, for the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN), which funds foodtech projects Visit CFIN at www.cfin-rcia.ca to become a member for free.
This column was originally published in the Feb./Mar. 2025 issue of Food in Canada.
