Picture credits: Lorelou Desjardins

It is finally summer in Norway and I wanted to buy fresh vegetables. I came home with enough to make a good salad, but when I took a closer look at my basket (see my picture), I realised it is obviously not coming fresh from the farmer’s market. Every single item is wrapped in plastic. With more plastic ties around the vegetables, and stickers on the plastic to indicate what it is. Even organic vegetables are wrapped in plastic.

Is all of this plastic necessary? Can producers and distributors not reduce or even stop using plastic on some food items in Norway? How many plastic stickers and packaging does one really need to buy an onion? you might wonder.

Because in this country every freaking thing is wrapped in plastic, more plastic, plastic everywhere. Why?

We now know the damages of plastic for the environment, and even for our health. Plastics breaks down into smaller plastic beads, and parts, and goes into our rivers, seas, lands, and the water we drink. It is everywhere, they now find microplastics in human bodies, whereas it is testicles or placenta.

But Norwegians happily continue to use plastic on food, even when it is clearly not necessary. For example I get it that sausages might need to be in plastic, but why do avocadoes or bananas need to be wrapped in plastic? Let’s check out why.

1- It makes food last longer

The main argument the food industry uses to justify the use of so much plastic in supermarkets in Norway, is that it makes food last longer, making their shelf life longer and therefore leading to less food waste. This argument is used and over-used as a silver bullet against any critical voice saying Norwegian food producers need to calm down on the use of plastic. So is it true?

Well of course contradictory studies have been published. For example the American Chemistry Council claims that plastic packaging is great to decrease food waste. They even have graphs to prove it. According to the American Chemistry Council, “the longer a food item stays fresh, the greater its chance of being eaten. Studies have shown that cucumbers wrapped in plastic last eleven days longer than unwrapped cucumbers; bananas wrapped in plastic last 21 days longer than their unwrapped counterparts; and beef wrapped in plastic vacuum packaging with an oxygen barrier film lasts 26 days longer”.

My problem with such claim, is that this organisation is paid by all its members, which are big chemical companies in the US and internationally. Of course chemical industries have a huge benefit in more plastic being used and bought because they are the ones processing it. Such as Shell Chemicals or BASF. Without even talking about the oil industry benefiting from more plastic being sold, since plastic is a by-product of oil, which is trying to find new markets to continue selling oil. Plastics is even seen as a gold rush for oil companies, which is one the reasons there is a huge increase of plastics in our everyday lives.

2- Selling more thanks to plastics

In fact, another study made by a British charity shows that plastic packaging does not help with food waste, and makes it even worse sometimes. The reason is that it pushes consumers to buy more food than we actually need. Think about it, and about that picture I took. Did I actually need 3 redd peppers, 4 tomatoes and a big salad? Or would I have bought less of all that just to make my salad that day, ensuring there is no food waste? In fact, when checking in my fridge today I realise one of the tomatoes is already rotting, therefore I’ll need to throw it away.

It is the same for every perishable good: if you were to buy potatoes, you’d buy what you think you need, but when potatoes are sold by 1 or 2 kilo bags, you don’t really have a choice. And the price per kilo is the same. They just want you to buy more. And plastic packaging around a certain amount of items makes it easier for them to sell more of what you might not need. Hence increasing the food waste.

Many foreigners in Norway were raised in countries where we have farmers’ markets, where you buy directly from farmers, whichever amount of vegetables you need. I miss that, so much.

3- The plastics gets recycled so it’s okay. Or is it?

Another point made by many Norwegians is that plastics in Norway is recycled or treated in the wonderful Norwegian waste management systems, which are of course the best in the world. I worked with this field for some years and I can tell you that first of all many plastics cannot be recycled, and when they can it is never 100% and there are a lot of chemicals and use of water involved. Then, plastics get burnt in Norway, so I guess that is a way to make it disappear, but maybe not the greatest either. Isn’t the idea to have less plastics in our world? and especially in contact with our food? And plastics also gets sent to other countries, where they can surely do great things with it. No! They can’t!

4- Plastics should not be in contact with food

What more and more studies show is that many chemicals found in plastics (plastics are different) are not suited to be in contact with good. 

Norwegian research center NTNU have found chemicals in packaging for food sold in Norway to be bad for health. Kids in Norway are also found to have higher levels of some chemicals than recommended (in a study by Folkehelseinstitutt in 2023). Food producers are trying to use less plastic, but are they doing enough? I would say they aren’t.

I am wondering how long it will take for food producers to reduce and even eliminate all unnecessary plastic from food packaging.

Do you agree there is too much plastic around food in Norway? Or am I over-reacting?