Away from disposables: In the future, to-go meals will only be available with a reusable alternative

Created: 12/31/2022, 1:30 p.m

By: Helena Grillenberger

No more to-go rubbish.

From January, restaurateurs must also offer reusable alternatives.

© Arnulf Hettrich/imago

According to EU regulations, anyone who sells takeaway food will have to offer alternatives to plastic waste in the future.

The restaurateurs in the district explain what they have planned.

District – In order to get the flood of plastic waste under control, the EU banned the production of single-use plastic tableware in the summer of 2021.

That meant no more plastic straws and plastic spoons.

From January 2023, however, the following will also apply: In addition to the disposable containers in which you can safely bring your food home, restaurateurs must also offer a reusable alternative - or fill in cans you have brought with you.

The provision of reusable packaging is mandatory for everyone who sells take-away packaging filled with food or drinks: restaurants, cafés, bistros, but also canteens, petrol stations, supermarkets or catering companies.

Pizza boxes and aluminum trays remain permitted.

But by now everyone should have an alternative for the rest.

Mixed feelings among restaurateurs in the district

In the district of Ebersberg, the restaurateurs are looking forward to the new system with mixed feelings: Steinberger's Marktblick in Glonn, for example, can start the new year relaxed.

The restaurant switched to the Germany-wide catering deposit system "Rebowl" more than a year ago, explains Ilonka Steinberger.

For food and drinks.

With this system, customers receive reusable plastic cans for a deposit;

if you bring them back to the restaurant, your deposit will be refunded.

Steinberger says people aren't always enthusiastic about the new system, but it's basically been well received.

"It's also a super system."

But there are other voices in the district.

Landlords who do not want to be named in the newspaper, but who make it clear on the phone what they think of the new system.

"I don't give a damn," explains one of them.

Not having anything planned yet, others.

Others, when asked about the forthcoming change, seem completely surprised and react by asking what the new regulation looks like.

There are exceptions to the rule

The "Landlust - Wirtshaus am Reitsberger Hof" in Vaterstetten, on the other hand, is among the prepared: The restaurant has been using the Rebowl system for two years, as an employee explains.

In addition, an attempt was made to promote acceptance of the reusable system: Anyone who picks up their food in their own container gets a discount of ten percent.

The new regulation will probably not drive out the disposable containers completely, because there are exceptions: Small businesses such as snack bars that have a maximum of five employees and whose sales area is a maximum of 80 square meters are not affected by the obligation.

But you have to fill the containers you bring with you.

With walk-in customers probably only on a small scale

Rosi Lemke, from the Hilscher butcher shop in Aßling, explains that the butcher shop will of course also offer the reusable packaging.

With coffee anyway.

The question is whether the offer will be used by the customers when eating, she says.

Because: "We have a lot of walk-in customers," says Lemke.

"The offer will then probably only be used on a small scale."

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