Trash cans full of single use fast-food takeout packaging can be a common sight in the city. As we become increasingly aware of the need to reduce waste, one Montreal non-profit called La Vague is attacking the problem with its own reusable container deposit system.
La Vague has just launched what it calls La Boîte, a durable, reusable plastic container for food. Montreal café La Graine Brulée is one of the first establishments to adopt it.
“The fast food industry generates a lot of waste, so we didn’t want to be part of that anymore,” said La Graine Brulée co-owner Marie-Eve Koué.
If you order takeout, La Graine Brulée will offer to put it the reusable container you can leave with. The idea is you pay a $7 deposit and then you can bring it back to any restaurant participating in the program.
So far La Boîte is only in 20 restaurants, but La Vague’s reusable, returnable coffee cup La Tasse has made it into hundreds of stores across Quebec since it launched in 2019.
They hope La Boîte expands in a similar way.
“We do hope and expect that number to grow in the next couple of months and years,” said La Vague’s sustainability director, Olivia St. Laurent.
“I think people are really aware that we have to do something to reduce all of the waste, so they’re pretty happy about it,” said Koué.
La Vague recognizes the $7 deposit might make some customers do a double take, but they say the price reflects the quality of the durable, intricately researched product that can be reused about 200 times.
Besides, you get the full deposit back and you don’t even need to wash it.
“It’s $7, so it’s not something you want to just forget in your drawer. You want to take it back,” said Koué, adding that people need to take such actions to help reduce the waste crisis.
St. Laurent said even though many municipalities are bringing in laws banning single use plastics, the compostable materials that replace them still generate waste.
“The reality is that waste is waste and it can end up as litter or in a landfill,” she said.
The ultimate goal is to get fast food chains to adopt La Boîte or something similar, because they are the biggest waste culprits.
Meanwhile, the more local restaurants sign up for La Boite, the easier it gets for users.