René Heiden takes two glass yogurt jars from the store shelf and lists nearby supermarkets where they can be returned after emptying.
His grocery store in Berlin eschews single-use packaging in favor of reusable containers, a waste-reduction model enjoying a renaissance in Germany. But it’s surprisingly hard to get right.
“You need a range of packaging to make it as convenient as possible for the consumer,” says Heiden.
“Refilling” of packaging, extended to more foods
An oil bottle, for example, needs a thin neck and a small mouth to allow for dripping – “you’d never put yogurt in one of those”. Marmalade and spreads, on the other hand, work best in cylindrical jars that a knife can scrape completely.
Germany has long been praised for its recycling performance, but its packaging reuse efforts are perhaps even more impressive. Three of his favorite beverages – beer, water and milk (probably in that order) – are included in national storage systems. Food companies are starting to embrace the “replenishment” movement for other foods as well.
“I see more and more products using reusable packaging. But I also see some manufacturers trying to expand but having to back off because the handling costs are too high,” says Heiden, who has dedicated a wall of his shop to grain and grain dispensers from which customers can fill containers brought from home.
The problem Heiden and others are trying to address is the abundance of trash that pollutes waterways, kills wildlife and — after the plastic breaks down into tiny particles — seeps into our organs, potrivit The Guardian.
In 2021, a German citizen generated about eight times his body weight in waste: 651 kg, above the average of residents of European countries. Germany created 64% more plastic waste that year than two decades earlier and burned most of it.
“The best packaging is the one you don’tyou produce”
But it’s not just a problem here. Europe’s packaging problems have piled up as consumerism has spread and Asian countries have closed their ports to ships full of Western junk. As part of efforts to stop filling landfills or burning them in incinerators, the EU has set targets to reduce packaging by 5% by 2030, 10% by 2035 and 15% by 2040.
“The best packaging is the one you don’t make. If you have to use them – for hygiene reasons, for example – then that packaging needs to stay in circulation for as long as possible,” says Nathan Dufour, who leads efforts to promote reuse systems at campaign group Zero Waste Europe .
We also recommend that you read:
A new recycling method could solve one of the world’s biggest challenges
Reversible glue has been invented that will make recycling easier
Surprise! Recycling releases huge amounts of microplastics into the environment
The country with the lowest recycling rate in the European Union
Source: www.descopera.ro
