Montreal restaurants preparing for ‘challenging’ single-use plastics ban
Posted March 25, 2023 4:26 pm.
Last Updated March 25, 2023 6:22 pm.
While supporting the city’s imminent single-use plastics ban for environmental reasons, a Montreal restaurateur feels it will have an impact on the industry’s bottom line.
Peter Contaoe, the operations manager at Cuisine de Manille – a Filipino restaurant in Montreal’s Côte-des-Neiges – says the ban will be “challenging,” but also “exciting” for the city’s food and restaurant industry.
Montreal is banning single-use plastic items in businesses beginning Tuesday.
Certain compostable and non-compostable plastic items like cups, glasses, stir sticks, straws and utensils for consumption on site will be banned. The move will also affect some take-out containers and utensils.
The city’s decision to ban single-use plastic items is a step to reaching its zero waste objectives by 2030.
“It’s a step forward for the city in terms of sustainability,” acknowledged Contaoe. “I think it’s something that was long overdue. But I do think that it’s hurting the businesses, both in terms of cost and also in terms of marketing.
“So we need to find a way around it and it isn’t going to be easy.”
Peter Contaoe, operations manager at Cuisine de Manille, stands behind the restaurant’s counter on March 25, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Diona Macalinga)
Contaoe feels the transition from plastic to paper soup bowls, for instance, will roughly double the restaurant’s costs – from 25-30 cents per plastic bowl to 40-50 cents for non-plastic options.
And it’s more than just the cost of packaging; Contaoe feels it will lead to a loss in free advertising.
Cuisine de Manille is well known for its elaborate and aesthetically pleasing “Halo Halo”– a beverage of fruits and jellies topped with ice cream. The colourful and very noticeable drinks are served in clear plastic cups.
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Switching to a non-clear paper option will hurt the business, Contaoe suggests.
“A lot of our drinks are going to be switching to paper cups, which is going to be very difficult in terms of marketing as well, because drinks look a lot more Instagrammable, they’re a lot more colourful.”
The restaurant already began transitioning their packaging to paper bags and take-out boxes. But with only a couple of days left until the ban is imposed, Contaoe struggles about what to do with the leftover plastics.
“We still have a lot of stock that we have to worry about, you know, getting rid of the stock on time, which I don’t think will happen,” he said. “But I hope the city will be lenient enough to let us finish the stock first.”
Contaoe says restaurants received emails by the city, warning them of the ban a year in advance. But other food businesses in Montreal are racing to replace their single-use plastics before the deadline.
Single-use plastic takeout bowl on the counter of Cuisine de Manille restaurant in Montreal on March 25, 2023. (Credit: CityNews/Diona Macalinga)
Since the bylaw was passed 18 months ago, the city has been working to support businesses affected by this green transition.
The city has indeed said merchants will be given time to use up their inventory before inspectors start applying fines, which will range anywhere from $400 to $4,000.
“It is also on consumers to change their behaviour, to adapt, and to support the businesses who are changing their business model,” said Sébastien Ridoin, the interim executive director of Association des sociétés de développement commercial de Montréal.
“And to use reusable containers in these businesses. So it really is a policy that equally concerns restaurateurs and consumers who also have to get use to the policy change.”
The Association des sociétés de développement commercial de Montréal is helping businesses with the transition, and even putting out guides and providing some solutions to respect the new rules.
