Chef Mark McEwan, owner of such notable Toronto establishments as North 44, One and Bymark is opening a new gourmet grocery store called McEwan’s.  A recent episode of his reality TV show “The Heat” was centered on how business owners must now learn to adapt to an eco-friendly business climate. McEwan said “If you’re starting a concept now, how do you not embrace this?” referring to the green movement and the fact that customers expect a business to be environmentally responsible.

The issue in this episode was the great debate on ordering bags: paper vs. plastic. “Being green is very expensive, easy to say, hard to do” McEwan said about the price of an eco-friendly reusable bag over a passé plastic one.   The Chef and entrepreneur was brought a variety of bags to look over one of which was an eco-friendly option made of craft paper. This choice would biodegrade more readily, because of the fact that it was free of any additional coatings. “Either your product is biodegradable or it is fully recyclable,” Mark commented on the subject of what his customers expected from a bag. Having said that it would seem to be an easy choice, as this bag would do it all: represent an eco-friendly option and be free to his customers.  The only stumbling block was….cost. 

The price tag per paper bag is 14 cents vs a plastic bag which would cost less than 5 cents per unit. If McEwan were to choose the craft paper non-coated bag, the price would be over six figures over the course of one year. For a start up business, no matter who the backer is, this is a sizable expense and that money may be better served elsewhere. At the end of the meeting they were going to be looking into the price of reusable polypropylene bags and he was awaiting a price list prior to making a decision. So do we believe that McEwan will make an eco-friendly choice and pick either the polypropylene or paper bags over plastic? Let us allow Mark to speak for himself and get straight to the point “for me to come out with plastic bags would be ridiculous”.

So kudos to Chef McEwan and good luck on this new endeavor and thanks for using an eco-friendly filter in decision-making. As his vision has become reality, you can go to the store and see which possibility won out and read more about it here mcewanfoods.com.

Tags: Biodegradable, Bymark, carbon footprint, Chef Mark McEwan, Eco Friendly, eco friendly living, environmentally responsible, green movement, Mark McEwan, North 44, paper vs plastic, planet forward, recyclable, reusable, reusable bag, reusable polypropylene bags, The Heat