Hello

I imagine that labeling lettuce, cauliflower, tomatoes or strawberries individually would be quite complicated. What's more, you would certainly need additional machines, the energy consumption of which would have to be added to the goods. It would therefore certainly be easier, cheaper and more energy-efficient to replace the fossil plastic films with organic films.

The vast majority of food could be packaged with films made from compostable plastics. We recently discussed this topic here:
https:// community.migros.ch/m/Forum-Migipedia/Plastik/m-p/509533#M22870

Greetings from the yellow Migi piglet

... If the organic products were in marked wooden crates or something similar and in a rack that was clearly marked with organic and people then entered the correct number on the scales, then you wouldn't need the plastic packaging any more. Of course, this assumes that we trust the suppliers and that we are honest at the scales.
It's actually not that complicated, or am I seeing it wrong?
Kind regards
honeybee

Hello Migi-Ferkel

I am aware that labeling with food coloring is not suitable for all types of fruit or vegetables. I was thinking more of apples, pears, cucumbers, celery, leeks or other varieties that are easy to label.
Because organic films often compete with food production, I think it would be best to do without packaging altogether.

Hello

Many types of fruit and vegetables are only packaged in film because it makes logistics so much easier. For example, 1 kg tomato packs, 500 g strawberries, grapes or mixed soup vegetables etc. make handling easier and such packs also facilitate the handling of empties. Most wholesalers have their own hinged boxes for fruit and vegetables when shipping to stores. If the goods were not packaged, the boxes would arrive in the stores from many different suppliers, which would complicate the return process. Foil-wrapped food will therefore remain the standard. However, a lot would be achieved ecologically if fossil-based plastics were replaced with compostable films.

Vegetables in wooden crates are more common, especially from foreign producers or suppliers where wood is the cheapest raw material. Wooden crates are not recycled like plastic collapsible boxes. They are too bulky, too heavy and as they cannot be folded, they take up too much space in the warehouse or truck. They are also difficult to clean, so they end up as waste when they are empty.

It would not compete with food production and farmers would have other customers for their products in the form of bioplastics companies. In Switzerland, for example, we have an overproduction of sugar beet because the federal government pre-subsidizes farmers with a good CHF 1900 per hectare. Planting beet is good business because there is also a purchase guarantee. As a result, the price of beet has fallen more and more in recent years.
The fall of the Schoggi Act will lead to further cuts in subsidies for farmers at the beginning of the next decade at the latest. Domestic production of bioplastics would therefore be a sensible way of utilizing our agricultural products. In particular, it would be a good opportunity to establish Swiss know-how worldwide and keep Swissness alive.

It is not only domestic agricultural products containing starch that would rekindle competition. A variety of fiber plants would also have the potential to become an ecological and economic boon for agriculture if bioplastics production were to take off. Not to mention the reduction in waste if the next generation of "packaging plants" were to grow on old, shredded and composted packaging.

Greetings from the Migi piglet