Di Sabrina Cuculiansky

Takeout is a trend that grows daily. All kinds of gastronomic products currently adapt to being taken away and enjoyed elsewhere. The food industry developed and presented innovation for containers which are to be suitable for food and beverages in these times of strict protocols needed in the prevention and fight against Covid 19.s

The most advanced players in the field are those who have managed to maintain the experience sought after by the consumer, with the use of a container that maintains the product as if it were freshly served.

Many of those vendors who offer these solutions have come across an extra challenge related to their commitment to sustainable development. How to be faithful to their principles without bringing waste material to the consumer, without adding pollution of the environment, and at the same time making it possible to recycle. In other words, changing the concept of “takeout” to one of “take-again”, a play on words easily understood by the Spanish-speaking consumer, which interprets that “take again” means using again, recycling the container. 

The numbers of discarded containers are scary:  for example, an event for 1500 people will need 10,000 disposable containers, and in a show with 50,000 attendees, 2 tons of plastic will be discarded. These figures are worrisome; there is no other way to see it.

The sector of cafeterias, cafes, or coffee shops, is not alien to this increase in garbage. The growth of the coffee market and what it offers, along with the takeout modality, has brought about an increase in the consumption of plastic cups and subsequent disposal in garbage cans, or carelessly thrown on the sidewalks or on the streets.

There are more than 200 million cups of coffee thrown away per year in Argentina. The biggest problem is that these disposables cups are made, for the most part, out of  poly paper, a material impossible to recycle due to the different layers of paper and plastic in it.

That is why what is coming to the takeout situation, is a change of consumer habits regarding the use of single-use plastic in general, and of disposable cups in particular. What is coming is the “take-again”, the possibility of reusing the container.

Thus, a group of Argentinean people, who had already been working on the issue of the environmental footprint created by disposable containers, are committed to raising awareness, seeking to generate a positive impact on society through the proposal of Café Circular, a triple company impact supported by the concepts of sustainability, integration and circular economy.

The solution that they have presented, one which more coffee-houses are favoring these days, is a system of returnable cups. A proposal based on circular and collaborative economy where the customer pays a deposit for the cup (with a lid), and after the drink is consumed, the cup can be brought back at the same store to receive cash back. It can also be taken away or returned to any other business that is part of the network to get that cash back paid with the original purchase.

With this proposal, it is not necessary to buy an expensive thermal glass, or to have to carry it everywhere. The overall intention when presenting this model of reusing cups and glasses, is to generate a change in behavior, where not only the consumer benefits, but also many businesses and baristas, who had already adopted it gladly. Coffee professionals, who love their creations and care for sustainability, have chosen not to deliver their drinks in something disposable, and also disfavor even those containers made of materials that go straight to recycling after one single use.

With Café Circular, the consumer pays a down-payment in the coffee shop and takes the coffee in a super resistant glass that is suitable for consumption. It is a glass that can be heated in the microwave, washed in a dishwasher, and that is also free from Bisphenol A, the carcinogenic substance that is released in some plastics when they come in contact with heat.

Its creators are preparing for the next step that is coming, which is to enter the ice cream parlor circuit, and are proposing the Circular Ice Cream model, which will help avoid the one-time use and disposal of Styrofoam containers currently in use in the Argentinean market.