Packaging

We have a love and hate with plastic and we are always looking to improving our packaging options to reduce the amount of plastic being used. The conundrum is that to keep the food fresh, there needs to be a perfect seal. This makes plastic the most convenient and affordable option, however, we need to make room for other creative ways to move fresh food sustainably.

What we are doing now:

Reuse, reuse, reuse! We sacrifice sexiness and marketing opportunities by reusing all packaging where appropriate and eliminating labels when possible. This means we pack orders in previously used paper bags and boxes (mostly from food supply), and we pack our bulk food in reusable ziplock bags. We encourage the re-use of these bags until such time as they may be recycled (they are recyclable with other film plastics like grocery bags) We never use secondhand bags for new product.

reuse boxes

We accept the return of all glass jars that are either labeled with a Food People sticker, or unlabelled. We sanitize and reuse these jars. We do not want lids, we do not want any other glass from other vendors (ie. Maranantha peanut butter jars, or Maison Orphee vinegar bottles etc.) Currently you will have to contact us at tyler.haut@foodpeople.ca to make arrangements for bottle return, or you may drop them off at our warehouse in Hubbards.

We currently still have a stock of non recyclable plastic bag products that we use. We want to change this and are waiting on some technology that will hopefully soon replace it. Buying in 1kg amounts will reduce the amount of non-recyclable plastics in your order.

Where we hope to be in one year:

Replace all plastic spice bags with jars
Replace all non-recyclable plastic bags with either recyclable or compostable bags
Improve glass container return and reuse capacity.