Allison Hanes: Stopping single-use plastic is not as difficult as it seems

There’s not a disposable stir stick, spoon, creamer or even napkin to be found in Café des Habitudes on St-Zotique Street in Rosemont — and it has nothing to do with Montreal’s new ban on single-use plastics that comes into effect Tuesday.

Owner Joanna Nisenbaum founded the popular neighbourhood coffee shop in September 2021, with the goal of producing as little trash as possible. She said Café des Habitudes is 95-per-cent zero waste, serving vegan treats on china dishes with stainless steel cutlery to patrons who dab their mouths with tea towels while sitting at second-hand tables and chairs.

The plant-based alternatives to dairy she uses, like oat or almond milk, come in old-fashioned returnable bottles from Montreal-based DAM drinks, a move she said has saved her tossing 5,000 tetrapaks in the garbage each year. Even fruits and vegetables are delivered in boxes that are recirculated.

Although Nisenbaum encourages her customers to stay awhile sipping their beverages, those that do order to go can take their snacks in cloth bags made from leftover fabric swatches for $1. And if they’ve forgotten their own travel mugs, they can get their drinks in a bright blue reuseable cup for $5 offered through La Tasse Bleue, a made-in-Quebec consignment program. Both are refundable if returned.

Montreal’s prohibition on plastics, from straws to any container made of styrofoam, will demand major changes from more than 8,000 food and beverage purveyors operating in the city. But Nisenbaum wants to show that dramatically reducing rubbish is not just possible, but profitable.

“Change always scares people, but there are solutions that exist,” said Nisenbaum, who is also the new president of the board of La Vague, a non-profit with a mission to develop more environmentally sustainable cafés and restaurants in Quebec. “I’m not going to hide the fact that a lot of people thought I was crazy at the beginning to do everything differently. But since I didn’t come from the restaurant milieu, I dared to do things in a new way and it worked.”

More importantly, Nisenbaum said, is that the public hungers for a shift away from throwaway culture — and there is an appetite for alternatives to single-use products. Since she opened she’s only had two customers leave because the café didn’t offer toss-away packaging or they didn’t want to put a deposit on a cloth sack or reusable mug.

“Everyone else appreciates it a lot. People are ready to change their habits,” she said. “It’s just that cafés and restaurants need to go in this direction. There’s no reason to be scared of losing customers. We just have to transmit our values and educate our clients that there are solutions that exist.”

Montreal, where plastic bags of any thickness were finally outlawed last fall, is leading the charge on eliminating all the litter that comes from takeout. As Marie-Andrée Mauger, who is responsible for ecological transition on the city executive committee, told journalists last week, it’s as much out of necessity as environmental conviction. The landfill where Montreal sends its garbage is going to be full by the end of the decade.

And let’s face it. Recycling has been plagued with a litany of problems in recent years. Radio-Canada revealed the latest snafu last week: the glass-sorting machine in Lachine, one of the two depots on the Island of Montreal for recycling, has been broken since October. Meanwhile two composting plants for the city’s organic material are over budget and behind schedule.

Reducing waste is therefore an urgent priority for Montreal — especially from everyday items that are discarded after being used only once.

And compared to some of the measures in place at Nisenbaum’s café, the new regulations aren’t all that radical.

Plastic cutlery will still be available upon request for customers getting takeout, but not dispensed for dining in. The clear plastic cups and plastic straws that bubble tea are served in are set to go the way of the dodo bird, but disposable coffee cups will be permissible as long as they’re made from non-laminated cardboard or paper. Plastic lids, meanwhile, should only be offered if the patron is leaving the premises.

These exceptions are no doubt common sense concessions to restauranteurs who fear losing business from clients who don’t carry their own fork or facing fines up to $4,000 for non-compliance.

Still, the city has reached out to educate merchants about the new plastics ban and plans to give them a grace period to allow businesses to exhaust their stocks of old wares and transition to new suppliers before enforcing the rules.

La Vague, the industry-created non-profit, is also there to offer support, expertise and best practices on cutting waste. La Tasse Bleue, the cup consignment program, was launched at a time some of the major corporate coffee chains were balking at filling travel mugs. After some hiccups due to the pandemic, the program is back on track and growing again, said Nisenbaum.

And La Vague’s next project, La Boîte, might be of interest to restaurants looking for new ways of serving takeout under the plastics prohibition. The portable lunch container consignment program, which was also delayed by COVID-19 uncertainty, is now set to launch in late spring or early summer.

“We’re just independent cafés, but I think we can be a model that brings more and more people on board, more and more other cafés on board to show what’s possible,” said Nisenbaum. “I hope one day more people will go in this direction.”

ahanes@postmedia.com

1. Hanes: Reducing waste, one cup of coffee at a time

2. Hanes: Why is our waste another country's problem?