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New Vancouver rules on packaging ring restaurant alarm bells

City staff set to release report urging council to ban polystyrene
tacofino_0
Tacofino co-owners Ryan Spong (left) and Jason Sussman on West Cordova Street outside one of their Vancouver restaurants and beside one of their food trucks | Chung Chow

Restaurant owners are bracing for what could be strict new City of Vancouver rules governing packaging.

Staff are gathering final feedback before reporting to Vancouver city council on May 16 with a proposal for how the city should regulate single-use packaging, bags and utensils, such as straws.

A draft staff report urges the city to ban polystyrene, which is used widely by sushi restaurants and retailers, such as Mac’s Convenience Stores.

It also urges the city to monitor how fast businesses are reducing their use of single-use items. If reductions are too slow, staff suggests that the city could “proceed with a full disposable bag ban.”

Another staff suggestion, if “progress” is not made in reductions, is that the city ask the province to amend the Vancouver Charter to give the city the power to require businesses to charge a fee for plastic and paper bags.

“There’s some good, some bad and some ugly in [the draft report],” Restaurants Canada vice-president for Western Canada Mark von Schellwitz told Business in Vancouver.

He’s happy that city staff consulted the industry, but von Schellwitz said some of his association’s members fear heavy-handed action from the city.

Members whose businesses are on city boundaries are also concerned about the impact of Vancouver instituting costly new rules on packaging that are different from those in Burnaby.

Business owners who have outlets in multiple Metro Vancouver municipalities also want consistency throughout the region, von Schellwitz said.

“We’re saying, before you ban anything, let’s do an education process with a lot of these small businesses and tell them that if we want to ban polystyrene, ‘Have you thought of this replacement or that replacement?’”

Von Schellwitz added that some of his association’s members believe that polystyrene replacement materials don’t provide the temperature insulation needed to keep food safe.

“I’m not buying that,” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson told BIV on April 25. “There’s no effective recycling of polystyrene on the provincial level, and because of its impact on the environment, I think it’s important that we take a stronger next step [by banning polystyrene].”

Robertson said he expected that council will not only receive the staff report but also take action on reducing single-use items before this fall’s municipal election. Still, von Schellwitz said he wants the city to use a flexible approach that would enable different businesses to reduce packaging and single-use items in their own ways.

White Spot Restaurants, for example, recently adopted a policy for its staff to provide straws only to customers who ask for them.

Other businesses, von Schellwitz said, could create their own single-use item reduction strategy.

“If you’re a quick-service restaurant where 70% of business is done through a drive-through, your single-use item reduction strategy will look a lot different than at a coffee kiosk,” he said.

Some Vancouver restaurant owners, however, agree with stricter packaging regulations and are proud of their accomplishments at going green.

“We [as a community] often don’t care about things unless we are forced to,” said Tacofino co-owner Jason Sussman.

“I wish that [voluntary action] was a thing, but it’s not a thing, really. If you go for sushi, then everything comes in Styrofoam. We all need to make a living, but all you have to do is charge for it. People need to be willing to pay for it.”

Sussman and partner Ryan Spong operate four restaurants in Vancouver, one restaurant in Victoria and three food trucks, including two based in Vancouver.

Instead of polystyrene, they use compressed pulp in packaging, and straws that are made from a corn base.

The packaging’s cost is built into menu prices.

“We have some drinks that you need straws for, [because] you really can’t drink them without straws,” he said. “If I had a paper option, it would be better, so I would rather use something like paper, as corn does biodegrade, but it takes longer to do that than if it were a paper straw.” •

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