Boxeaty, meet the Bordeaux-based founders
Between 6 and 9 tonnes of packaging linked to the fast food business are thrown away every day in Bordeaux, according to the ADEME. “This packaging is only used for 5 to 10 minutes, just during the time that it takes to eat, and yet it takes resources like wood and petroleum to produce this packaging; it doesn’t make sense,” laments Yann Thielin, one of the three local founders of BoxEaty.
Their goal is to replace single-use packaging from takeaway businesses with returnable glass containers. “The consumer pays a €4 deposit in addition to their meal the first time they take part, and, then, the next time they bring back their dirty container, they can swap it for a clean one in our partner restaurants,” explains Yann.
No need to eat at the same place every lunchtime: Paus’K, Truck de Chef, Copine Claude, La Casa Gaïa and many others are all participating in this scheme and take back your containers, which are then collected by a cooperative of independent bike delivery runners, Les Coursiers Bordelais. “We wanted to create a “virtuous” circle that uses as few kilometres as possible,” Elise Fillette, the co-founder, points out.
The boxes are washed, either at restaurants where they are equipped to do so or in a lab shared with a local caterer. Next, the boxes are returned, ready to be filled with more lovely dishes. “Some restaurant owners are happy that this allows them to present their dishes in a certain way, which they couldn’t do in cardboard packaging,” Elise Fillette adds. She saw her list of partner restaurants grow when seating became limited due to covid-19 sanitary measures.
“They were able to continue working without any drop in quality.” The returnable containers can also be used by one-time visitors to such restaurants: “just like a plastic cup at a festival that you take back for your deposit at the end of the evening, you can take your container back to one of our partners”.
As for restaurants, there is a cost to begin with - around 12 cents more per container compared to a single-use organic biodegradable fibre container, “but then they don’t need to spend any more on packaging”. Around thirty have already signed up and avoided using 25,000 single-use items of packaging.
