SPAIN. Leading travel retail and food & beverage company Areas has launched a ‘Road to Reuse’ project which aims to reduce the use of plastic and encourage recycling in traveller food service.
The programme, which will roll out to three locations in Madrid and Barcelona before 2023, hopes to reach at least two million travellers in Spain. Its cornerstone is a -30% reduction in salad packaging.
Areas’ partners in the project, which is supported by Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism, include Bûmerang, Ecogots, inèdit, Clúster Envase y Embalaje State Investment Agency of Government of Valencia and Clúster Foodservice State Investment Agency.
Areas said sustainability is under the spotlight in corporate strategies, not only because of increasing raw materials prices and climate change, but also because of new local and international laws. A law passed recently by the Spanish government introduces a tax on non-reusable plastic packaging and prioritises reuse over recycling whenever possible.
“In the food service sector, measures promoting a shift to more sustainable packaging are of vital importance due to the large amount of materials and packaging used,” the company said.
The Road to Reuse project is based on an app-supported deposit and refund system in food service establishments which are frequented by travellers. The first pilot phase will kick off on 15 December at Areas-managed COMO outlets at Barcelona Sants and Madrid Atocha railway stations. Areas’ Dots unit at the Atocha station is also included in the programme.
According to Areas, the three establishments boast an annual traffic of approximately two million customers and a potential of 5.7 million. The company will sell 30% of its best-selling salads in returnable packages at the selected locations.
Areas foresees a -30% reduction in salad packaging, equal to more than 44,000 units of salad per year, and savings of up to 1,000kg of plastic in one year.
While the Road to Reuse project’s main goal is to encourage the reuse of food packaging, Areas efforts will also offer a -10% reduction in C02 emissions and generate social and corporate awareness of problems associated with one-use plastic.
Areas noted that a return and refund system is an important and relevant solution as it allows cleaning and refitting of the same salad containers as many times as necessary.
“To create a closed system to reuse and clean packages we must work hand-in-hand with technology in this process,” Areas added. The company also pointed out that the app supporting the Road to Reuse programme processes data to ensure the traceability of all the packages so their location, status and maintenance can be monitored.
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