Go to content

Appendix E. Reusable packaging operators

Table 32 Data obtained from reusable packaging operators in Europe.
 
Kamupak (Finland)
Kleenhub (Denmark)
Vytal (Sweden)
reCIRCLE (Switzerland/​Denmark)
Recup/​Rebowl (Germany)
Pyxo (France)
Bumerang (Spain)
Retoornado (Spain)
Raw mate­rials for your packag­ing
pp-plastic
PP bowl and Lid with TPE and PP
Polyprolyne
Polybutyl​entereph­thalat with 30% of Glassfibers
Polypropylene
Mainly PP, also Tritan and recyclable glass (verre sodo-calcique)
Polypropylene
Polypropylene
Volume of packag­ing
500 ml; 1.2 L; 1.7 l
1250 ml
750, 1250 mL
BOX 1M: 1200ml
BOX 2M: 1000ml
BOX 1S: 600ml
BOX MENU L: 900ml
Cups: 200ml, 300ml 400ml 500ml, Bowls: 550 ml,  590 + 320 ml, 1100 ml
From 120mL to 1500mL, mainly 750mL
Cups -> 200-500ml, Bowls -> 500-1250ml, Trays -> 700-1500ml
Small box 38 x 28 x 8 cm
Medium box 42 x 28 x 12 cm
Large box 42 x 32.5 x 15 cm
Weight of packag­ing (min. and max. weight)
from 48 g; 107 g; 118 g
266 grams
x, 266 grams
BOX 1M: 220g
BOX 2M: 254g
BOX 1S: 159g
BOX MENU L: 268g
(including Lids)
Min: 7 gram lid for the cups or 30 gram for the smallest cup
Max: 219 gram for bowl with sepa­ration includ­ing lid
Average for 750mL : 120g
Cups -> 15*-30g, Bowls -> 87 - 180g (with lid)
from 350g up to 550g
Dura­bility of product
100 times
200 times
138 to 142 times
200 washing cycles or more. We just checked up to 200 uses. But, more could also be pos­sible regarding wash­ing. Since, not washing is the issue but the usage (knife and fork) is the problem
Cups: 1000 cycles
Bowls: 500 cycles
Our oldest container yet has done 130 cycles, but it means it can live longer
Cups -> 500-1000* cycles, Bowls -> 200-500 cycles
From 20 up to 40 uses in normal conditions. De­pen­ding on the the content de­live­red in our boxes, the dura­bility can be improved or reduced.
Production process
Injection moulding
Injection moulding
Injection molding, EUROPEAN
Injection moulding
-
For plastic : injection
PP injection
PP injection sheets that are transformed into boxes. 
Country of pro­duction/​Trans­port method
Sweden
Germany/​Holland
Germany
Switzerland. The granule is from Italy and the Nether­lands and soon Sweden.
We are producing everything in Germany
The trans­portation methods are DHL Green with vans and DB Schenker with semi trucks
Netherlands, Germany, France – initial transport mainly truck
Nether­lands and Ger­many Truck transport palle­tized with stand­ard EU Pallet
We are import­ing from Asia right now (coming into con­tainers via sea) and making short runs within Spain (trans­ported via truck in EUR pallets).
Reuse rate (number of reuse cycles)
90%
95%
99.3%, it is free if they return it before 14 days
In theory, people buy a box and after finising the meal, people return it to the restaurant. Restaurant washes and sells the BOX again. In reality, only 20% do so. 80% buy a box once, and then keep it at home or office and take it with them when they go to the restaurant.
We are currently working on reliable reuse rates (for durability please see above)
Our return rate (everytime we lend a container, what are the odds it comes back in 14 days) is between 92 and 98%. The older the network is, the higher this rate becomes.
99.5% thanks to our digital penalty system
Right now with closed circuits, return rate is 100%
Reuse process
App; When borrow­ing, the user agrees to return the dishes with­in 14 days to one of our part­ner restau­rants. Multi­ple dishes can be borrow­ed at once.
App, borrow a cup or con­tainer by scan­ning the NFC card at the counter, you have 10 days to return packag­ing or restau­rant within the net­work
Download app, Ask for Vytal and order your takeaway in reusable, lend it with the QR code free of charge and return within 14 days
Since we do not track, we do not know. But, we have products in circul­ation that were produced in 2016.
We are currently working on reliable reuse rates (for durability please see above)
It is usually washed internally by the restaurant (only 4% of restaurants outsource it today but for large scale schemes it will be mainly outsourced)
Return-on-the-go (as Ellen Macarthur Found­ation classi­fi­cation). Trans­port­ation for return is con­side­red non exist­ent as our con­sumers are the ones return­ing the con­tainers to our part­ners.
Custo­mer has to return their sub­scription stuff in the same box as it was re­ceived. 
Cleaning/​washing: i) water (amounts of water and tem­pera­ture), ii) de­ter­gent (chemi­cal com­posi­tion and amounts)
Done by restau­rants
Done by restaurants
Restau­rants have to clean it/​users to rinse it/​Industry washing.
Restaurant and end-users do the washing so differs very much.
We don’t have detailed infor­mation on that. The pro­ducts are in gene­ral heat resist­ant up to 85°C
For restaurants that wash inter­nally, water con­sumption : average of 6 l/cycle. One cycle is bet­ween 10 and 25 items.
As we don't offer central washing we don't know, how­ever we know most of our part­ners have indust­rial washing from com­panies
We are work­ing cloth­ing in­dustry so no need to wash with water. Only in spot we need to clean with some wet cloths.
End-of-life 
Re­turn­ed to plast­ic re­cycl­ing in Fin­land, where the ma­te­rial is re­cycled  (Lassila & Tika­noja)
At the moment there are not so many, but they collect them back and reuse them
Plan: sell material back to the raw material supplier, regrinded. They are returned and stored
Lids: Downc­ycling into con­crete spacers. (Cups and trans­parent BOXes will also be down­cycling) auber­gine BOXes hope­fully re­cycl­ing into new BOXes (Per­mission not yet gran­ted)
The pro­ducts can be 100% re­cyc­led. Our pro­du­cer takes old or dam­aged pro­ducts back for re­cyc­ling.
Recyc­ling main­ly for PP and glass, down­cyc­ling for Tritan (con­struct­ion in­dustry)
Recyc­ling with PP injector in Barce­lona area, 20km trans­port­ation with trucks in palle­ti­zed. In 3 years we haven't been able to get enough con­tainers to re­cycle.
We still haven’t had waste, but the goal is to send to a re­cyc­ling PP plant to make it re­usab­le again for same pur­pose.