“What the customer wants, we do.” Jessica Kubot remembers that customers at “Noon Food”, where she works, asked for reusable tableware several times – a good year ago, the decision was therefore made to enter the Recircle deposit system.
In the branch in Gräfelfing, Kubot estimates that the reusable boxes now make up 70 percent of to-go operations. At the Ostbahnhof, around 40 percent of orders are still placed in reusable boxes – but in the branch on Hofmannstrasse in Obersendling the concept is not accepted at all.
Kubot explains this with the location: “Noon Food” specializes in lunches for companies, in Graefelfing the location in the industrial area is practical. Word of mouth is also important: “If someone in the department uses it, it doesn’t take long for others to have it,” she says. The principle is simple: if you order food, you pay a deposit of ten euros per bowl and five euros per mug. The next time you visit, you return the dishes and get your money back.
The idea is not new: anyone who picks up food from a restaurant or has it delivered to their home uses reusable trays instead of disposable boxes made of plastic, aluminum or coated paper. It’s all free for customers. Starting next week, the city of Munich will also be supporting the concept financially: Restaurateurs can then apply for up to 500 euros if they participate in one of the reusable systems established in Munich. In addition to Recircle, there are Recup, Tifin, Vytal and Relevo, chains are excluded from the subsidy.
The potential is great: in its resolution paper, the city’s environmental department assumes that around 8,000 companies will offer take-away food and drinks. The providers estimate that 700 to 800 of them use reusable systems – that is only around ten percent.
The system is free for customers
In addition to the funding, the city has set up an internet platform and set up two information events and a consultation hour to train restaurateurs and retailers, explains Gesine Beste, spokeswoman for the climate and environmental protection department.
By next year at the latest, the catering trade will have to start thinking about reusable packaging anyway: From January 1, 2023, the new packaging law will oblige restaurants, delivery services and caterers throughout Germany to offer reusable alternatives to disposable packaging.
Roberto Careri forestalled the law. Since February 2021, customers of his restaurant “Der Sizilianer Trinacria” on Balanstraße have been able to have their food served in reusable crockery. 60 percent are now doing this: “I’m satisfied with the demand,” says Careri. He believes that people in Haidhausen are more sensitive to the issue of environmental protection than anywhere else.
Careri participates in the Relevo system: customers don’t pay a deposit, but instead scan the bowls using a QR code and then have two weeks to bring them back. The radio dead zone in which his restaurant is located causes problems, says Careri. The size of the vessels is also not optimal for him, they are either too big or too small. He wants to apply for the city’s subsidy, and he thinks the idea is great, he says.
Head chef Eckard Scholz also uses reusable crockery in the Rumpler restaurant.
(Photo: Alessandra Schellnegger)
Eckard Scholz, head chef at Gasthaus Rumpler, is not quite as convinced of the support. 500 euros doesn’t make a big difference, he points out: “If you don’t have a deposit system now, you won’t get it with the funding either.” Customer pressure is more relevant. The Rumpler also uses the Relevo deposit system – and is happy with it.
The restaurant pays 12 to 25 cents for each loaned item. It’s more expensive than disposable, but not by much, says Sch0lz. And there is a positive side effect: Customers can return the dishes in all restaurants that use the deposit system – one or the other customer uses this to try out a new restaurant. The disadvantage is the return period: Anyone who has not returned their dishes after two weeks pays ten euros per bowl. He knows people who have borrowed several bowls and then missed the appointment – they are “very upset,” says Scholz.
“Munich is one of the strongest cities for returnables in Germany”
At Relevo, the fine is called the climate fee and says that the system would not work without it. Reusable tableware is only more environmentally friendly than the disposable version if the bowls are put back into circulation: “Otherwise we have to produce them again, which is harmful to the climate,” explains Matthias Potthast, one of the founders.
They launched the Munich start-up in February 2020, where Relevo now works with 300 restaurateurs. “Munich is one of the strongest cities for returnables in Germany,” says Potthast: This is partly due to the fact that, in addition to Relevo, the Recup company is also based on the Isar. Potthast says the willingness to use reusables has increased significantly during the corona pandemic.
It’s difficult to generalize about how often you have to use reusable tableware so that it’s better for the environment than disposable packaging. That depends, for example, on how much water is used for rinsing in the company, explains Katharina Istel from the German Nature Conservation Union. The climate balance is also affected by whether the dishes are transported by car or by cargo bike. And not to be neglected: the material. Glass breaks quickly, stainless steel is virtually indestructible, but complex to produce.
A good compromise is hard plastic, says Istel. Reusable cups are already worthwhile after the tenth use, after 25 times the difference to disposable cups is clear, she says: You can roughly transfer this to tableware. It is important to use the containers for a long time: “Taking out the dishes as soon as they have a scratch is not the point.”
The shopping bag you bring with you to the supermarket has become established
In order to avoid waste, however, reusable tableware is immediately worthwhile. How much waste is generated each year from disposable packaging is not recorded separately for Munich. The environmental department assumes 4800 tons per year – the estimate is based on figures from the nature conservation association for all of Germany. However, they are from 2017, and the amount of waste is likely to have increased again due to the pandemic. How can that be changed?
Deposit systems should become better known – everyone you ask agrees. Customers should ask for the reusable bowls themselves, says Jessica Kubot: “If 50 people are standing in front of you at lunchtime and just want to eat, it’s difficult to actively ask.” Katharina Istel says it took a while for the shopping bag she brought with her to the supermarket to become established. “We’re a long way from that with to-go food.”