“Fill your pockets, not your trash cans!” At the Super U in Carquefou, these are the kinds of posters that customers in the butcher’s, fishmonger’s or caterer’s departments can come across. For two years, this hypermarket in the Nantes conurbation has been testing an innovative device: rather than buying their pork loin, salmon steaks, or bruschetta in disposable plastic trays, consumers can opt for stainless steel containers, returnable , which they bring back to the store once empty.
While the reuse of glass bottles could be making a comeback in France, and the legislative framework is tightening around packaging of all kinds, a Nantes start-up would like to apply the process to trays, which are ubiquitous when it comes to products. costs. “It is estimated that 21 billion single-use trays are produced each year,” laments Claire Nijdam, CEO of Bernie. The objective is to offer a solution to manufacturers and supermarkets who want to be able to do without plastic or polystyrene. The start-up, which takes care of all the logistics, washing and transport, would have already convinced a thirty stores in several departments of the Great West to use its containers.
“Good for the ecology and not very complicated”
Concretely, Berny has developed small stainless steel dishes (made in France), which can be put in the oven and in the microwave. Customer supermarkets package and wrap their individual dishes, pieces of meat or fish, and offer them on the shelves, for 2 or 3 euros in addition to the price of the product, depending on the size of the tray. “It’s good for the ecology and it’s not very complicated, just rinse them and bring them back to the store reception for the next races, appreciates Valentin, 21, who has adopted the system. Financially, of course you have to take out a few more euros, but then you earn 10 cents for each dish brought back. »
A reward system recently put in place by the company to encourage the public to take the plunge and increase its return rate, which is currently around 60%. Because changing habits is not easy for everyone. “With inflation, and already high prices on meat, some customers are not ready to move forward for the deposit, notes the director of the Super U in Carquefou, Yoann Ravard, who also offers this drive-thru option. It is therefore impossible for us to switch everything to stainless steel, which only represents around 3% of the trays sold. For the others, even if they cost us a little more, we switched to recycled ones. »
Berny, who currently employs about ten people, hopes to convert some 200 stores to his system by next year. It also targets the food industry, and has already tied up with some of them “several projects to change the process”. After a first fundraising of one million euros last year, the start-up should make a new round of funding in the fall to continue its development.