From single-use to multi-use packaging

From January 2024, all types of food establishments must offer the consumer a choice between a single-use or multi-use package.

The requirement to offer reusable packaging as an alternative applies to cafes, restaurants, food carts, street kitchens and grocery stores, regardless of whether the customer eats on site or not.

– Everyone who serves fast food, it says in the regulation. But the term fast food is misleading. There are the same requirements for the fine dining restaurant as for the hamburger bar. The important thing is whether the food or drink should be served directly without heating, says Åsa Stenmarck, responsible material flow expert at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

Additional requirements are to join a producer organization, PRO, and acquire a system so that the reusable packaging can be returned by customers, washed and reused.

– So it is not enough for the customer to bring their own coffee mug. The idea is that it produces a greater environmental effect if recycling becomes more large-scale.

Anyone who issues less than 150 packages per day over the course of the year is exempt. The industry is also getting a period of adjustment as the legislature understands that the new recycling system presents challenges.

How and where should the customer return the used coffee cup? Where should the lunch boxes be washed? Who manages the transports? How many different kinds of lunch boxes and coffee mugs can the consumer manage to keep track of?

– The actors are now working hard to find solutions. The government does not specify what the systems should look like and does not require them to join any particular recycling system. They think that the market will solve it, says Åsa Stenmarck.

She expects that eventually there will be companies that offer the service of collecting, washing and returning.

– At first we may see many different types of systems, but over time we will see fewer, believes Åsa Stenmarck.

The key question is how many packages are returned. The leakage must not be too large. The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency therefore hopes that the municipalities will also offer collection points. The Danish municipality of Aarhus has taken such a decision.

– Many actors are also looking at the pledge or the library model, that you have to pay if you don’t return it within a certain time. A major challenge is that many smaller food suppliers are not aware of the new legislation.

The municipalities have supervisory responsibility. but today there is no penal system.

– The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency will follow what happens. We may need to tighten the legislation in the future. But we don’t want people to perceive reusable packaging as a threat, but as a new opportunity.

The eateries also have a requirement to inform. You as a customer must receive written and verbal information that you can make a choice and what your choice means for the environment.

Experience from Germany, which had the same legislation for a year, shows that success above all depends on whether shops and restaurants emphasize the reusable option and how simply it is presented to customers, says Åsa Stenmarck.

– That is the biggest challenge, to change the customer.

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Stricter requirements for reuse

The new regulation increases the requirement that more packaging be reused. The proportion of reusable packaging that is put on the market must be reported to the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, as well as how many times they are rotated before they become waste. The goal is for the percentage of packaging that is reused to increase by at least 20 percent by 2026 and by at least 30 percent by 2030, calculated from 2022.

The article is part of NPA Magasin