Upgrade Your Takeout: A Guide to Choosing the Right Reusables

If you run a small sandwich bar or café, it’s not only good for the planet to switch to reusable containers for frequent customers. But it will also save money, for better profits. For passing customers, there are also better options than plastic food wrap and sandwich bags.

Typically these schemes work on a deposit basis. People pay a pound or more to rent the item, then return it either to the eaterie or ‘reverse vending machines’ (working a bit like deposit return schemes which England does not yet have, unlike most of Europe).

Research has shown that nearly 100% of customers like this idea, so you can also market that you’re offering this service, which will likely attract more loyal customers.

Clingfilm is awful stuff, one of the few plastics that still can’t be recycled (it’s often the ‘film you can’t recycle’ on top of ice-cream tubs an ready meals). And since removing PVC, it doesn’t even stick properly. Manufacture causes ‘nurdles’ which look like fish food when it ends up in the sea.

RECUP: reusable bowls and cups from Germany

RECUP offers reusable bowls and cups for over 20,000 outlets in Germany. Customers buy a bowl of soup, eat it at the office, then return it to receive the deposit back.

Translated from Euros, cups are rented for around £1 and bowls for around £5. It takes just 12 cup uses and 6 bowl uses for your business to start saving money, by not having to buy disposable food and drink packaging.

Each RECUP can replace up to 1000 single-use cups, and each REBOWL can be used up to 500 times. The cups are sold in various sizes to accommodate all needs, and are stackable to save space, and dishwasher-friendly.

Both items are shatterproof with an optional lid and divider to separate sauce. The bowls are in 3 sizes, leak-proof and heat-resistant up to 85 degrees C.

This brand was founded by two young men in Germany (one from eco-friendly Sweden). Who were astounded at the billions of single-use plastic cups and bowls being served each day (around 184 cups a second and 85 plates a second).

According to industry reports, cafés can spend anywhere from £2,000 to £10,000 annually on single-use packaging. This figure can vary based on the café’s size and customer volume. This is a no-brainer idea to switch!

Ökobowl: a reusable food bowl from Germany

Ökobowl is another smashing brand from Berlin (the most vegan-friendly city on earth!) and used nationwide. Again sold alongside reusable cups, Ökobowl can be cleaned (in the dishwasher) around 1000 times, is easy to stack, and sold with or without a lid.

Sold in four sizes, again people pay around £1 for a bowl, then return it to receive a deposit back. You can then wash the bowl and off you go again!

Caulibox: homegrown reusable food containers

CauliBox is a local company that makes reusable food containerss for shops, founded by two London foodies, to help prevent disposable takeway containers in restaurants and shops. This works a little differently to the reusable bowls above.

Instead, customers use an app to find a location. Cauliboxes are then free to loan, as long as they are returned within seven days. They are leakproof and odour-proof with sealed lids, and are stackable for dishwashers. And can be recycled after around 400 uses.

Users also automatically earn CauliCoins through their app or account, to redeem for free food and drinks at partner locations. Some towns have CauliKiosks (just pop bowls back in, after lunch). There are also CauliCups and reusable Cauli Pizza Boxes!

Already CauliBoxes are used by over 10,000 people so why not join them? The company can supply to any food-service business. Users report savings of between £4K to £10K per year.

Green Box reusable takeout bowls

Green Box reusable bowls are made from bio-polymers and suitable for hot or cold foods, sold in bulk. The 650ml size is ideal for salads, pasta, curries or ‘Buddha bowls’ with secure matching lids. You could also sell these in zero waste shops for people to portion nuts and granola.

Designed to stack to save space, the bowls can be used many times before recycling. The same company makes  reusable wine glasses!

If You Care (compostable snack and sandwich bags)

If You Care offers an option for those who are just passing visitors, so would not use returnable items. These snack and sandwich bags are greaseproof (ideal for buttered sandwiches, nuts, chips, cookies and foods with mayonnaise or oil).

Made in Sweden from unbleached spruce tree pulp, these are not treated with petrolueum oil and chlorine-free, so no poisons dumped into our lakes, rivers and streams. The same company sells plastic-free alternatives to clingfilm (which you can buy by the case) like parchment paper and bags for heating food up.

The more zero waste options offered, the more likely people will frequent your eaterie. And then are more likely to visit you, rather than buy a plastic-wrapped sandwich from a supermarket or petrol station.

Supporting local indie sandwich shops also means less money going to far-away shareholders. And more help for local farmers due to buying local ingredients. And most are within walkable communities, so that means less road traffic on our streets.