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  • Whole Foods.Black Plastic

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Why is Whole Foods Using Black Plastic Cutlery?

I was in a Whole Foods the other day getting lunch and as I went to get a fork and spoon to eat at one of the tables there I noticed that the plastic cutlery dispensed to customers was black. That they're plastic at all clashes with the eco-friendly mission Whole Foods purports to be on but black plastic is usually even worse. Check out my write-up on black plastic on the home page of GoodasDirt. It's often contaminated with hazardous chemicals like fire retardants, lead, chromium and mercury. That's because there's a dearth in cleaner acceptable black recyclable plastic so black is often made with recycled chemical-laden products like e-waste, which is loaded with toxic chemicals. 

So I was a little surprised Whole Foods' utensils were black. Not shocked though as Whole Foods could be doing so much more to live up to the eco-friendly image it cultivates. Is the cutlery harboring toxic chemicals? Or does the supermarket giant use bioplastic that just happens to be black? Black plastic from a clean source? I'd like to think Whole Foods would only offer cutlery that was as toxin-free and safe as possible. 

I tried to call Whole Foods headquarters to find out where it got its cutlery and what it was made of exactly. I had no luck reaching anyone but sent an email to the media and the marketing departments. That was May 6. I'll update this post if I hear back from them. 

I went back to the store today and took a look at the cutlery dispenser. It had a notice on it that says "Made with Love and 100% Recycled #5 Plastic." Uh oh. Not encouraging. But let's see what #5 plastic is. I looked it up and the news is not good. It's polypropylene and, in addition to being used for food packaging, disposable cups and plates, prescription pill bottles, personal care products, it's also used for car parts, household appliances and for electronics, including housing and internal components and enclosures for batteries. Housing for a lot of electronics is why the recycled black plastic waste stream often has fire retardant chemicals in it. This tells me the black plastic used for the Whole Foods cutlery is likely the very black plastic we are being warned to avoid, particularly with food-related products, like plastic spatulas and other cooking utensils. If so, it would be ironic that the biggest natural supermarket chain in the US would use this toxic material. And it would also be an abandonment of its healthy image and a risk to the brand. 

Then I noticed the word Preserve on the cutlery I took. Fast forward, I found the supplier, Preserve. Here's what it says on their website. 

"We choose to use #5 plastic (polypropylene) as our source material because it is a versatile and benign plastic. Preserve obtains our recycled plastics from a network of trusted sourcing partners and we test each new source that we reprocess. The recycled plastic in our Preserve products represents pre-consumer recycled material or a mixture of pre- and post-consumer blends. 

We identify the origins and intended use of all our plastics and work with our material suppliers to ensure that we know the first application of each material source. We follow FDA guidelines for use of post-consumer plastics in our products and all our sources of recycled plastic are tested for foreign elements, such as heavy metals, to ensure that there are no harmful chemicals migrating from the plastics that we use." 

I sent an email to Preserve with some questions specific to the cutlery. I'll update this post if I hear back from someone either at Whole Foods or Preserve. Meanwhile, consider bringing utensils from home if you're planning on having lunch at Whole Foods. 



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