In the hunt for more environmentally friendly packaging and food products, restaurants and other food-industry businesses have been trying to hit a moving target sort of. The legislation changes and varies from state to state and country to country. And legislation is more concrete – consumer habits are even more challenging to meet.
But companies like Starbucks and Tim Hortons have been trying programs for reusing products like cups, where a customer would buy a reusable cup and return it to the restaurant when they come back. Burger King, which also rolled out designs for reusable packaging to do away with paper products, is trying its own cup reuse and recycling program at two locations in Finland.
According to Yahoo News, a restaurant and catering company based in Finland called Restel has been developing drinkware that could be used up to 200 times, and then sent to a company called Sulapac to be recycled.
Sulapac uses material that is “100% biobased and can be industrially composted,” according to Yahoo News. “That means it can break down naturally and avoid the risk of creating microplastics.”
“By collaborating with Sulapac we can mitigate the negative climate and environmental impacts related to single-use and oil-based plastic while advancing the circular bioeconomy, Anna Koskinen, Restel’s sustainability and communications manager, told Yahoo.
European nations like France have already introduced legislation that would require reusable packaging and eliminate single-use products, but it’s less black-and-white stateside, meaning these programs are still very much in their testing stages. It does seem like the future of packaging and fast food paper products will incorporate some sort of reuse program, but there are still obviously kinks to work out.
