Doing this will involve a dramatic reshaping of how society works.
All of the food packaging that is plastic needs to go away. This would entail large shifts in supply chains, how we buy groceries, and economics of scale for certain goods. We know it is possible (glass bottles were the norm even just 30 years ago), but doing that transition now will be huge.
Then there are all the plastic bags that food comes in. From cookie sleeves to protein bars, all those plastics need to go away. How products are made shelf stable will need to change, which means flavors will change, and some products may no longer be viable.
I hope we make the change as a society, but it will be absurdly complicated to do.
Edit: I'd love if the restaurant industry had standardized reusable takeout container sizes that could be washed and handed back to a restaurant for (sterilization and then) reuse! It would not only improve the quality of takeout food (better insulation), but be more environmentally friendly.
Only if they are 100% bioplastics, and 100% biodegradable in nature, not just in an industrial facility, or else you can end up with the same microplastics pollution problem. Although different chemicals are likely to have dramatic different impacts on the environment, hopefully by now we've learned that "dumping a bunch of microparticles into the environment and hoping everything is OK" is a bad way to go about things.
All of the food packaging that is plastic needs to go away. This would entail large shifts in supply chains, how we buy groceries, and economics of scale for certain goods. We know it is possible (glass bottles were the norm even just 30 years ago), but doing that transition now will be huge.
Then there are all the plastic bags that food comes in. From cookie sleeves to protein bars, all those plastics need to go away. How products are made shelf stable will need to change, which means flavors will change, and some products may no longer be viable.
I hope we make the change as a society, but it will be absurdly complicated to do.
Edit: I'd love if the restaurant industry had standardized reusable takeout container sizes that could be washed and handed back to a restaurant for (sterilization and then) reuse! It would not only improve the quality of takeout food (better insulation), but be more environmentally friendly.