Overcoming the challenges to reuse
Reuse requires rethinking how we deliver and consume
While reuse protects the environment, saves businesses money, and creates new opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors, there are challenges to developing and implementing new systems.
Some of these challenges are perceptual. Some involve overcoming the inertia of the status quo disposable paradigm. But in many communities and for many businesses, there are legitimate infrastructure and service gaps - especially for mainstreaming reusable takeout and delivery. We list some of the challenges below and offer potential solutions.
Fortunately, an incredible array of innovations is making it easier than ever for cafes, restaurants, professional offices, temporary venues and events, and college campuses to bring reusables into food and beverage services. Upstream’s online catalog of reuse service providers tracks these innovators.
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The restaurant industry has long been known to be a pressure cooker. It’s a high stress environment fraught with thin profit margins, staff turnover, demanding customers, and the pressure to produce meals as quickly as possible. There isn’t a lot of time to think about changes in operations and how to implement them. Packaging isn’t high on most managers’ priority lists. Many do not consider disposable food serviceware to be impacting their bottom line. But they are keenly aware of labor costs.
Many food businesses think switching to reusables will significantly increase labor costs, although the actual experiences of those that have made the switch do not support this view.
Solutions: The good news is that transitioning from single-use to reuse can save businesses money with minimal additional labor expenses (if any at all) and provide a better experience for customers. With technical assistance and engagement, food-service businesses can not only make the transition and realize savings, they can mentor and encourage others in the industry.
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Throwing something away is easier than washing dishes or bringing a reusable cup or container with you. It’s easier for a food vendor to buy a bunch of cups, stack them up, and hand them out. There’s no need for questions like “for here, or to go?” and no need to train staff. Incorporating reusables into on-site dining operations and take-out services requires more logistics and continued employee training. Without training, staff frequently grab the disposable if available. Throw-away habits are part of our culture, and without efforts to make people think about it, disposables are often the default.
Solutions: Many new reuse systems and services make it easier to offer take-out and delivery of prepared meals and beverages in reusables. These systems make it more convenient for customers by relieving the burden on them to bring their own cups or containers.
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In the food industry, state health codes set the standard for how to wash food serviceware and whether or not a customer’s personal cup or container can be filled. The state codes, based on guidance from the federal Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code, dictate the standards that food businesses must meet. The FDA maintains links to every state’s health code.
The federal code allows refilling of customer’s beverage cups and food containers according to certain specifications that prevent cross-contamination. Even though local health codes largely mimic the federal code, many businesses won’t fill personal cups or containers, citing concerns about health code violations.
Solutions: In California, the state retail food code permitted filling a customer’s personal cup and also allowed filling a food container as long as it was done in a manner that avoided contamination. Not many people knew what that looked like. Some health inspectors told food businesses not to do it. In 2019, the state legislature enacted AB 619 in order to remove the confusion and pave the way for reusable cup and container systems to thrive. Local activists and municipal partners should ensure that state health codes enable rather than hinder reusables.
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Food businesses worry about losing reusable utensils and even food containers and cups to customers inadvertently tossing them into the recycling or trash bin. They may also be discarded by staff or stolen.
Solutions: One solution that has been found to work by numerous restaurants working with ReThink Disposable is to strategically demand less sorting behavior from the customer. In some cases, product loss was avoided by moving the trash and recycling bins away from the dining area to the “back of the house” and installing customer self-bussing bins in the dining area. Customers place everything in the bus bin – the plates, cups, and utensils, along with food waste and trash. The staff sort everything and can increase collection of food waste for compost, collect recyclables, and solve the product loss problem.
Another effective option is to leave compost bins for customers to discard their food waste before placing their used dishes in the bus bin. In this case, clear signage that the bin is only for food waste is essential in the avoidance of product loss.
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The North American online food delivery market reached a value of $18.8 billion in 2018. Prior to coronavirus, the industry was projected to grow to $37.7 billion by 2024, with an annual growth rate of 12.3%. Increased demand for single-use food serviceware will follow this growth in the take-out food sector, unless convenient and functional systems for reusable food serviceware are developed to disrupt the trend. Bringing reusables into this space is challenging, especially with third party apps like GrubHub and UberEats, as they are not preparing and packaging the food.
Solutions: New companies are coming online to fill this need. Dispatch Goods, for example, delivers restaurant-prepared meals to customers in reusable stainless steel containers. There is ample opportunity in this space for disruption. With 82% of the meals ordered online going to the home (only 16% to the office), drivers repeatedly go to customers’ homes, creating an opportunity for pickup and redistribution of reusables.