I personally love food trucks but I agree with Steph Lai in her post about the controversy of food truck waste and Vancouver’s aim to be the world’s greenest city.
I would however argue that in many ways restaurants create similar problems, especially regarding things like energy use. A restaurant has to supply, washrooms, lighting, larger cooking facilities etc… while a food truck only has to cater to the customers who order and then go on their way. Conversely, food trucks have a harder time managing waste as restaurants can easily compost almost all of their food waste but food truck customers are well away from the truck by the time they finish their meal. A way food trucks can compete on this matter is to set up a central location for food trucks as well as outdoor seating, seen in Vancouver’s food truck festival earlier this month as well as the weekly farmer’s market location.
A major flaw is of course that they have disposable containers and utensils, while some of them are compostable, it takes a long time if placed in the dump (not ideal for composting! as seen in Alberta’s issue regarding grass clippings). In Vancouver especially I feel that the majority of food trucks try to leverage sustainability in their cooking by either using locally sourced ingredients, organic food, or both. I feel that these characteristics make up at least a little of the waste they produce and they are certainly a step up from fast food outlets like Mcdonalds or Burger King.
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