09 - Reuse it or lose it – part 1

How can we reuse our way to true circularity for valuable resources, and what does this concept look like in practice? If you missed our webcast on Reuse, tune in to this week’s episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, as we have published part 1 of the audio recording. This episode features industry expert Geir Sæther (Senior Vice President, Circular Economy at TOMRA). Part 2 with Andy Grant (Eunomia) is coming soon.

Listen to the episode below, or use your favourite platform (Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcasts)

Show Notes

• Status quo of takeaway packaging [1:35]
• Policy updates on reusable packaging [4:58]
• Circular solutino for reusable takeaway packaging [7:47]
• Key elements of a reuse system [10:07]
• How returning reusable packaging works [13:27]
• Incentivizing consumers to return packaging [15:18]
• Scaling reuse through regional sanitization hubs [17:35]

Transcript

Mithu: Welcome to another episode of TOMRA Talks Circular, the podcast that delves into the latest innovations, initiatives and ideas driving a circular economy across the globe. I'm your host, Mithu Mohren. Picture this: It's lunchtime and you're craving your favorite meal from that local restaurant down the street. You place your order, walk down the street, and pick up your order. Or better yet, it's delivered to you. But have you ever stopped to think about the environmental impact of all of those disposable containers, utensils and bags that come with your meal?

In today's episode, we'll be exploring the many benefits of managing takeaway packaging with an effective reuse system. We'll discuss how it can help to combat plastic pollution by reducing litter and keeping materials in the loop as long as possible. But it's not just about the big picture. We'll also delve into how individuals like you and me can contribute to this movement on a daily basis.

This is the first of two episodes of a recent webcast streamed out on June 14th. In this first episode of ‘Reuse it or lose it: how use can ensure the true circularity for valuable resources?’, Geir Sæther, Senior Vice President and Head of Reuse at TOMRA, talks about the status quo of takeaway packaging and a new innovative solution that will put reuse into work on the ground. Let's listen in. So, let's get started. Geir, I'd like to start with you. What is the status quo today?

Geir: Thank you. I'm really pleased to be here today to talk about the work that we've been undertaking, which is looking at the comparison, the environmental impacts of single-use packaging, both paper and plastic formats when compared to the alternatives of reusable packaging in a reuse system – a system similar to what Geir just described. And to date, we've been looking at the greenhouse gas emissions of a single-use format when compared to a reusable format. So essentially a cup, maybe a paper cup for coffee compared with what would happen if you had a reusable cup in a reusable system.

In the near future, we will be taking that thinking and looking specifically what it means in terms of climate change impacts again in a cityscape. So, using specific city models to look at that and also considering wider environmental impacts such as littering and so forth.

Mithu: Okay, so this is going to be interesting because I'm sure I'm not alone. You would think that a paper cup is better than anything. So, this is going to be interesting. Can you bring those two together for a single use and reusable models and what impact that will have on climate change?

Geir: Yeah, thanks Mithu. You know, the truth is that recycling alone cannot provide a necessary transition to a sustainable future. We need more. Reuse systems, for example, for takeaway food and drinks packaging is not only a method to reduce littering and pollution, but it's also a way to reduce the CO2 footprint of the packaging industry.

We think establishing attractive, efficient systems for reusable packaging for takeaway food and drinks is a key contributor to the circular economy. And, you know, reusable packaging can mean a lot. What we have decided to focus on is reusable packaging for takeaway food and drinks, mainly because that's where we see the possibility for a very high and, and significant impact from an environmental perspective.

In our constant search for consumer convenience, we have created mountains of litter. Just look at go into the city a little late on a Saturday evening and you will see a lot of litter around and often you see little bins overflowing. So, that is a situation we are determined to do something about. Typically, the average European consumer today …. statistics say the consume more than 200 disposable packages from takeaway food and drinks annually. [Mithu: That’s a lot] That is a lot. I was surprised. And this also explains why as much as 40% to 50% of the litter you find in in public waste bins in cities consists of this takeaway packaging. Often this packaging is not ending up where it should be in – in waste bins – it's littered. And, if it is collected in waste bins, it's normally not recycled. And of course, to manage all this waste also has a significant cost. A cost which is more and more transferred to businesses, cafes, restaurants – that industry which is using the single-use packaging to more reflect the societal cost related to this packaging type.

Mithu: And okay, so this is what's happening on the business side of things. Is anything happening on the policy side of things?

Geir: It is. It is, actually. So, we see quite some initiatives on the EU level. For example, in the in the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive, which is now being revised, which is the initiatives and targets for reusable packaging. However, we also see a lot of developments in different countries. Take France, for example, from 1st of June this year the whole quick-serve restaurant industry now has to use only reusable packaging for dine-in applications. This means that Burger King, McDonald's and all those guys and have stopped using single-use packaging for dine-in – and have started to use reusable packaging.

We also see that in Germany, that cafes, restaurants, businesses providing fresh cooked food and drinks. They now have to offer reusable packaging as an alternative to the consumer. The same legislation is as in Germany is now kicking in first of January next year in in Sweden. In Denmark, we know that they will introduce their extended producer responsibility – legislation 1st of January 2025. And rumors say that there will be a fee or a tax on single-use takeaway packaging to, to disincentivize the use of it. The rumors are talking about a 20-cent fee – that is not confirmed at all but at least that's that's current rumors. It will be exciting to see what is ends up with. Also, Portugal has introduced a tax on single-use aluminum and plastic packaging for takeaway. So yes, quite a lot though initiatives on the legislative side. That is really needed to make reusable packaging in the norm and not the exception. We need incentives, clearly.

Mithu: So, it sounds to me like the time is right now.

Geir: I think the time is certainly right to develop attractive, efficient systems based on reusable packaging. Yes. And that's why TOMRA strategically has decided that this is something we would like to contribute to.

Mithu: Walk us through that. What is TOMRA thinking?

Geir: What we are working on is a circular solution based on reusable takeaway packaging. The user journey will start in the same way as with single-use packaging. The consumer gets their food or drinks from a restaurant, cafe consumes it wherever he or she is – in the park, in at university, at work, etc. But here in this solution, the packaging is not disposed into a bin, but rather returned to a collection point, which should be where you are. So, where you live, where you work, in the park, where you are maybe on a Sunday. The packaging should be returned to, for example, to, to the cafe restaurant where you got the food or drinks. A part of the system we are offering is also a logistical solution where the packaging is picked up from this collection points and brought to a sanitization hub, where the packaging is sorted, sanitized, quality inspected and stacked before it's ready for a new journey back to the restaurants. This is the system we are working on. And the good thing is that these collection points can actually accept packages from different packaging providers. [Mithu: This is new part, I would say]

That's, that's quite unique. It's very unique actually, compared to existing systems that you can bring all the packages, whether it's from, from Vytal or reCup. From recap, you can bring it to the same collection points. You don't have to go back to the different partner restaurants to get rid of the packaging and that's why we call this the TOMRA open managed system.

Mithu: Okay. Geir, as always, you make it sound and seeing so easy. But I'm quite sure there needs to be some elements in place for this to work properly

Geir: Yeah, and you are right. Reuse is not necessarily easy. It's actually quite complex. Over the last year we, meaning my team and myself at TOMRA, we have tried to understand: what are the key success criteria for efficient successful systems based on reusable packaging? And we have come up with seven key requirements we believe are you must fulfil to have success.

First of all, you need incentives for cafes and restaurants to actually use the system. You also need a financial return incentive so that we as consumers have an incentive to not throw the reusable packaging in the bin, but rather return it to a collection point. And the system must have a good system integrity. So it cannot be cheated – and you can, from an environmental perspective, prove the benefits of the system. That is not unique to our offering. However, the next four points in the in the lower part of the charter we think are quite unique to our offering.

I mean, if you're honest, reusable packaging is more consumer inconvenient than single-use packaging. Nothing is easier and more convenient than throwing a single-use packaging into the waste bin, is it? [Mithu: No] So at least we have to make the consumer convenience as good as we can. And one key point here we think is to have a dense network of automated collection points. Again close to where you where you are.

Then we think we should keep the sort of the user threshold as small as possible. We think smartphone apps, which a lot of these reuse systems out there use today is not the ideal thing. We would like to offer a system without the need of smartphone apps. If you are operating with a deposit as a return incentive – you could also have a penalty as a return incentive, a monetary penalty. But if you have the, we think the easiest and most consumer convenient way to implement this is to have a system where you simply tap your regular payment device. If that’s your Google pay system or Apple Pay Watch or your bank card, we have now a system where you can do the same for the reverse or for the collection point. You simply tap your payment device, insert your reusable packaging and you get your deposit back within seconds onto your bank card or your bank account. So that is pretty consumer convenient – we think it is.

Mithu: It sounds fun actually – you're tapping your way into reuse. That’s good. So, I actually don't have to take my container back to the same place that I bought it from.

Geir: No, and the reason is that we simply don't think that is convenient enough. As I mentioned, we are now implementing this open managed system. Open because as I've said, it's a system which accepts packaging from different reuse providers. You can return to one single collection point, different packaging types. We call the system manage because packages and providers need to qualify for the system. To give you an example: the packaging needs to somehow be marked. It needs to be serialized so each packaging is unique. The packages obviously also need to comply with certain physical limitations. So, that's why we call this an open managed system.

Mithu: Okay. So, this is actually what makes the system convenient for the consumer, for me.

Geir: Yes, that is true what I talked about in the previous slide, plus what I talked about here, think together makes this system as convenient as reuse ever can be. And that is pretty unique with our offering.

Mithu: Yeah, that sounds like it, But still, Geir, as you said – let's be honest, it's still a trip. I still have to go somewhere. I have to take it back. [Geir: Yeah] What is going to make me want to bring this back?

Geir: Well, as I alluded to earlier, there are basically well, what TOMRA has learned over the last decades is that no incentive is less efficient than a (system with a) financial incentive when it comes to influencing consumer behavior. We clearly need an incentive for consumers to return their reusable packaging, and basically you have two options. Either you have a deposit on the packaging or you could have a penalty, meaning you are charged automatically if you don't return the packaging within the agreed time or maybe one week or two weeks.

There is one more principle we think is key to a good system, and that is that littered packaging – if you find reusable packaging on the street corner – should have a value. You could say it's litter, although it's not … there should be a value to that packaging. So, if you pick up my litter, you should get the benefit. That is ensured in in our system. That is not the case with all other systems out there. We think that's an important principle to bring from there more classical deposit return schemes for beverage packaging.

Mithu: You've mentioned it's a deposit that the consumer is paying on this particular container. It's not a tax. It's not increasing the price in any way. [Geir: No, no, no.] So basically the deposit that I pay, I will get back in 100%.

Geir: 100%. That that's important.

Mithu: This definitely will make me make that trip, I guess, or make that trip on the way to do something else. So that's good. So, we've talked about everything from the consumer side. I'd like to know what is that that will make this system work wherever it is in the world. Are there technology benefits, for example?

Geir: What is important for us is, is to have a system which also scales when reusable packaging becomes the norm and it's not only a marginal exception like it is today. System scalability is very important to us and. We think the way reusable packaging is returned today, which is over the counter. The default method today is that a person takes back, receives your reusable packaging over the counter, let's say at a cafe or a restaurant. And we think that works fine as long as the market share of reusable packaging is small. But when this becomes the norm and not the exception, we are totally convinced that you need automated collection points. Let the machines do the collection job and just think about, you know, taking back filthy, dirty reusable packaging and at the same time serving food and drinks - that's not good.

We also think that we're today, almost without exception that cafes, restaurants have to sanitize the reusable packaging, you know, with existing dishwashers, etc. We think in the future, again, when this becomes the norm, there is no way that restaurant owners are willing to convert the nice business to a sanitization hub. You know, investing in a lot of new dishwashers, which is, by the way, quite challenging when you are to sanitize plastic reusable packaging, which is also often the case today because particularly drying plastic reusable packaging is a totally different ballgame than washing and drying porcelain, steel, etc.

Also the quality assurance case here is really important to maintain the trust confidence from consumers that this reusable packaging which someone else has used previously is really clean and safe to use again. So that's also something which should be professionalized and done in an industrial way and with industrial scale in regional sanitation hubs.

By offering automatic collection points, professional sanitation hubs, we think we have a system which can scale and that is has been important for us. Yeah, by getting all these things in place, we think we'll have a system which is easy to use for, for both the restaurants, cafes, for consumers that is easy, safe, accessible, 24/7. That has been important for us.

Another really, really important focus from TOMRA has been to design a system with, with minimized environmental impact. And here we have engaged, Eunomia and Andy to help us looking into how the environmental footprint from these reuse solutions can really be minimized. So, Andy, are you ready to take us through some of these your findings and some of your research?

Mithu: Tune in next week to hear Andy Grant, Technical Director at Eunomia, to hear about the preliminary research and how effective reuse systems could work to significantly reduce CO2 emissions. Thanks for listening in this week.