Single Use Plastics - Renewable

Michael Kalmanovich has been thinking about sustainability for a long time. 

Nearly thirty years ago he opened Earth’s General Store. Today, Earth’s is a community grocery store dedicated to offering healthy, sustainable food to a small but passionate Edmonton community. Thirty years of thinking about what we eat and where it comes from has ingrained Michael with a holistic lens through which he thinks about consumption. We sat down with him to pick his brain and to try to gain a better sense of the impact behind our favourite foods and how we buy them.

Michael is a champion of responsible and thoughtful packaging for our food. As a grocer, he saw firsthand the sheer scope of waste produced simply by packaging foods for consumers in an appealing, marketable way. He decided to change this. His first step was to find products sourced and produced ethically. Next, came offering reusable containers and encouraging bulk purchases of familiar staples. Then, Earth’s moved on to expanding the scope of what products customers can buy in bulk — including shampoos, oils, etc. He wants single use plastic packaging to feel like the exception, not the norm.

But reducing the emissions of the food we eat goes beyond the packaging of the food we buy at the grocery store. It takes a holistic approach to reduce the climate impact around food purchasing. So what kinds of things can your average person be doing?

Reduce Food Waste

According to a report released by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, the average Canadian wastes roughly 396 kg of food per capita every year. That puts us amongst the heaviest wasters in the world, and contributes the equivalent of 193 million tonnes of greenhouse gas or 41 million cars on the road. That goes beyond the food we leave in the fridge, and factors in food wasted in the production of the foods we eat. But consumers do have choices to lower their food waste, like purchasing imperfect produce, pushing for smaller portions in restaurants, planning your meals and buying only what you need when you’re at the grocery store.

Buying Local and Organic

Beyond the benefits to the environment of purchasing products that are hormone and antibiotic free, purchasing local and organic reduces your emissions in several ways. Michael points out that while the emissions saved from buying locally grown food might be small, it starts adding up when the product is then sold at a neighbourhood grocery store or farmers market located close to work or home, or even better, grown in your own garden. In short, don’t just be conscious of how much you’re buying, but also of what you’re buying, where it comes from, and what resources went into its production.

Reduce your use of disposable plastics

And then there’s the core focus of our conversation with Michael: food packaging. There are a lot of staggering numbers around plastic. About 335 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year, with 13 million tonnes entering the ocean every year. By 2050, by mass, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. So what’s to be done? You probably remember the Recycling R’s (reduce, reuse, refill, and recycle) from elementary school, but one of the biggest things you can do to tackle plastic waste is to tack a fifth R on to the list — refuse. Cut off demand and refuse straws, bags, and any other single use plastic product you can.

Or, as Michael championed to us, you could do all of the above. You can shop at a grocery store that carries waste free products, emphasizes products compatible with a plant based diet, and works with local and organic producers.

And as much as you can, walk rather than drive to the store.

Renewable is a series about visionaries, creators, community leaders and above all else, Edmontonians, each with a unique vision of a sustainable future in the heart of Canada’s fossil fuel industry.  

For more information, visit edmonton.ca/RenewableSeries.