Reuser - the startup changing how we takeaway

by Startacus Admin

London-based startup Reuser has developed a digitally enabled reusable container service for cafés, restaurants, offices, and events.

Plastic is easily one of the most useful inventions humans have ever come up with, but also one of the most damaging to the environment. It doesn’t break down in a clean and harmless way, it gives off harmful chemicals if burned, if buried and left to break down, its chemical composition changes and becomes more toxic, leaching into the soil and water, microplastics fill the oceans and kill marine life…

The cons of plastic are considerable, and you might be hard pressed to argue that they don’t outweigh the pros. There are more and more alternatives being produced, including simply using cardboard for coffee cups, but not only do these alternatives not yet match the simplicity, ease, and low cost of traditional plastic, they can come with their own cons. Cardboard cups, for example, are disposed of in their billions in the UK alone every year - that’s a lot of trees, water, and energy. So we need to keep the alternatives coming.

London-based startup Reuser is a reusable takeaway container service with its own plastic. The startup teamed up with product developer IDC and injection moulding firm Naiad Plastic to make a reusable takeaway cup from a bio-polypropylene created by the Borealis Group.

This is a bioplastic created from crop waste and vegetable oil, and Reuser has created a cup that can be returned to collection bins located at their partner locations, where they will be collected, cleaned, and then redistributed for reuse. These partners can be cafés, restaurants, offices, or events, but the customer does need to download the app so that they can scan the QR code on the cup when they take one and when they return it.

If this style of reusable, bioplastic container does well, there is no reason that the same technology and service can’t be applied to other types of takeaway container, tackling both the issue of the impact of plastic containers, and the push for net zero.

 

 

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Published on: 6th January 2023