A solution from another time brought up to date ... To avoid the plastic packaging of the salad bar or the disposable cup of the coffee machine, start-ups provide companies with glass or plastic containers recycled.
Once used, they are placed by consumers at collection points.
There, suppliers collect them before washing them and making them available to employees.
“Before, I was a fan of delivery platforms.
But over and over again, it seemed impossible to me to keep throwing away one plastic container a day.
»Employee of Edenred France, specialized in payment solutions, Mathilde Lecompte is one of the volunteers to test the deposit developed at the head office, in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine), by the start-up No Waste in my World (NoWW).
Reduce corporate waste
With the health crisis, the canteen and the company cafeteria closed and the employees who continued to work on site referred to the restaurants and supermarkets in the area.
However, take-out products often produce non-recyclable waste and are the responsibility of companies.
“There is an issue in reducing the volume of bins, to limit the financial and environmental repercussions,” recalls Marie-Céline Plourin, director of sustainable development at Ederend France.
Indeed, the European Council has announced that it wants to put in place a tax on non-recycled plastic packaging.
If we do not yet know how it will apply, its amount has been set: 80 cents per kilo, or 800 euros per tonne of waste.
Employees aware of their ecological impact
The development of such solutions is also being pushed by employees who are increasingly sensitive to the ecological cause.
Since the health crisis, awareness has "exploded" according to Lucas Graffan.
The start-up he launched with Yasmine Dahmane in 2018 - La Consigne GreenGo - offers a digital solution.
Users retrieve their container by scanning their badge or on the start-up's application.
The deposit of two euros is credited again when the container is returned.
The find would be more and more in demand.
"We have about thirty customers and we should have doubled within the next two months," he says.
The deposit would not pose a risk from a health point of view either.
“Compared to disposable, there is only one additional point of contact, so the risk is not major,” assures Benjamin Péri, co-founder of the start-up Pyxo.
Educate employees
However, the switch to the locker is not always easy.
Thus, the rate of return of containers for NoWW, very variable, would be from 30 to 95% depending on the location and the level of information of employees.
Benjamin Péri also remembers experiments on sites where employees were rather resistant.
“There are a lot of people who are constrained too much: we are in a hurry, we forget to bring back the container, it is not easy, he admits.
Our role is to redouble innovation so that the course is easier.
"
Not all players set up a financial counterpart.
"We made the choice not to charge anything for the moment, in order to have the maximum membership and to blow the most brakes", explains Marie-Céline Plourin, of Edenred France.
The mobilization of collective catering
At NoWW as at GreenGo, “locker machines” or “collectors” have also been developed.
These automatic vending machines are placed on the employees' meal routes to encourage them to return their containers.
“Rather than throwing their reusable packaging in the trash, they put it in the container,” says Lucas Graffan.
Collective catering, like Foodles, has also been set up.
Delivery players such as restaurateurs doing take-out sales are also concerned.
A movement supported by the government, which signed a charter to this effect on February 15.