Coffee on the go, dinner from the restaurant at home: drinks and food quickly end up in disposable packaging - paper cups, menu boxes made of Styrofoam or aluminum, packed in bags or bags. “Since the introduction of the reusable offer requirement on January 1, 2023, surprisingly little has changed in practice in the first year,” says Prof. Holger Rohn, sustainability officer at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen ( THM ). What is the reason for the hesitant implementation? What do companies need to offer more reusable packaging and what does it take for consumers to use these offers more intensively?
Against this background, the Reusable To-Go (RTG) initiative launched the pilot project "Reusable Model City" in Wiesbaden and Mainz to test a consumer-friendly reusable system. The aim was to develop a neutral, overarching structure that enables the efficient return of Reusable packaging is possible.
The THM and the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus of Trier University provided scientific support for the project. Prof. Rohn and Stefanie Hillesheim were involved on behalf of THM . The universities surveyed consumers in both cities and launched a parallel online survey, once in the summer of last year and once in spring 2024. On the one hand, they wanted to find out whether people consider reusable tableware to be useful and whether they use it themselves.
They also surveyed catering businesses and other businesses in the reusable sector online, such as logistics, cleaning and system manufacturers.
A good 560 citizens took part in the two surveys. Over 60 percent said at both times of the survey that they had already used reusable tableware. 73 percent of those surveyed completely agreed that reusables help reduce waste. However, on average half of the consumers rated returning the cups and bowls as inconvenient.
To make this easier, the cities of Wiesbaden and Mainz had set up return machines in central locations, but these were hardly used. The finding from the scientifically supported project: Most people bring their reusable tableware back to where they took it with them.
“We were able to identify a clear discrepancy between the desire for reusable packaging and the actual use,” explains Prof. Rohn. How can this gap be closed? Part of the solution could be a financial incentive: “If reusables cost less than disposables, two out of five respondents would be more willing to use reusables,” he says. The catering establishments involved, of which only around four percent responded, considered uniform regulations on deposits and return options in public spaces to be important.
The scientists accompanying the project therefore recommend making consumers, but also the catering industry, more aware of the issue of reusable food. Reusable alternatives would have to be massively advertised and should be economically cheaper than disposable packaging.
At the same time, local authorities should monitor more closely, because since January 2023, consumers have had the right to take food and drinks with them in reusable containers. Smaller catering establishments with a maximum of five employees and a total of 80 square meters of indoor and outdoor sales space do not have to have their own reusable offerings, but they do have to fill the food into containers they bring with them if requested.
The federal states of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate supported the model project financially. The THM and the Environmental Campus Birkenfeld recommend that the states implement more such projects and support nationwide campaigns.