Deposit crockery – got a taste for it – district of Munich

The mountain of rubbish is growing. If you just look at lightweight packaging in the Munich district, a total of 8920 tons of it stacked up in the first Corona year 2020, 379 tons more than in the previous year. In times of the pandemic, a lot of packaging from the catering trade ends up on the pile, after all, in the lockdown, everything from schnitzel and roast pork to pizza and gyros was only available to take away. Very few dishes in the district were delivered in reusable packaging. Little by little, the municipalities are now trying to switch to the deposit system and are paying something for this contribution to environmental and climate protection.

Suppliers of reusable deposit systems have various containers in their range that can be used for taking away and delivering meals and beverages. Gastronomy companies such as cafes, restaurants, delivery services, but also canteens, school canteens or catering companies can use it. The containers replace disposable packaging and can be used again and again after being returned. The catering establishments can either purchase and dispense their own reusable containers or use pool systems such as Recup.

The city of Garching already showed it in March and provided 48,000 euros in the budget for funding. The municipality of Ismaning decided a little later to promise the restaurateurs 500 euros start-up financing if they buy reusable tableware. Other communities followed suit and made money loose when the landlords undertake to do the dishes and do without disposable dishes. Plastic packaging has not been allowed since this summer anyway. Most recently, Neubiberg decided to promote the introduction of reusable deposit systems for drinks and meals to take away. Catering establishments that opt ​​for such a system should receive a one-off reimbursement of 80 percent of the purchase costs for the vessels from the municipality, or a maximum of 500 euros. The municipality finances the grant through its new climate protection funding program.

This is how the Greens in Unterhaching had imagined and in April submitted an application to the local council to introduce a reusable deposit system. With 320,000 disposable cups per hour in Germany alone, they see an urgent need for action. But without the support of the community, they fear that the changeover will not succeed so quickly. Even before Corona, her current second mayor Johanna Zapf had made a push to the landlords to convince them of the reusable systems. In addition, in June the district invited “packaging waste” to a round table and the climate protection department in Unterhachingen town hall launched an appeal to all local restaurants. However, the response was zero. Currently only the restaurant “Die Waldeslust” in Unterhaching offers the reusable system from the company “Vytal”, the administration reported to the local council last week.

Open detailed view

As of 2023, providers of take-away meals and drinks have recently been legally obliged to keep a reusable variant ready. The only exceptions are companies in which no more than five employees work in total and whose retail space does not exceed 80 square meters. Because snack bars, late night shops and kiosks often have no way of washing the dishes. However, they must allow customers to bring their own containers with them. However, single-use packaging may still be dispensed.

But the community of Unterhaching doesn’t really want to wait so long and watch that more garbage is piling up. “We want to be faster than the law,” says town hall spokesman Simon Hötzl, who also points out that Unterhaching has finally set itself the sporting goal of being climate-neutral by 2030. Nevertheless, one does not want to “do the math without the landlords”, as SPD councilor Harald Nottmeyer critically noted in the most recent council meeting. “A blind funding program is of little use,” said Peter Hupfauer (FDP).

So now there should first be another request from the restaurateurs, then a funding program will be discussed again. “In principle, it is a good time to promote gastronomy so that it can get back on its feet,” says Hötzl, who is also responsible for economic development in the town hall. The municipalities cannot determine which system the catering establishments introduce. But Birgit Buchinger from the Neubiberg Environment Agency and Stefan Lauszat from the Unterhaching community are hoping for an event on reusable deposit systems on November 22nd in the Grasbrunn community center (starting at 3 p.m.) that the catering establishments concerned will coordinate their activities. District communities that are also dealing with the topic will take part in the event, as well as interested restaurants and the three providers Recup, Recircle and Vytal.