Circular Economy in the canteen: Start-up develops reusable containers for the catering industry

We all know the image: urban rubbish bins overflowing with disposable packaging. The Corona pandemic has made this problem more visible. The start-up MealGood has made it its mission to counter the throwaway mentality by developing bio-based reusable containers for the catering industry.

In an interview with K-MAG, Laura-Marie Schulte talks about the genesis of MealGood, the special features and requirements of their bio-based containers and their vision for a sustainable packaging industry of the future.

Ms Schulte, how did you come up with the idea for MealGood?

Laura-Marie Schulte: At the beginning of the Corona pandemic, my co-founder Eva-Maria Kappelhoff and I were both still working in critical infrastructure companies. When the canteens were closed, we increasingly observed how the bins on the office floors became fuller and fuller at lunchtime, as lunches were now ordered from caterers and delivery services. We felt that there should be a solution that, on the one hand, avoids disposable waste and, on the other hand, is easy for the catering industry to integrate and stands up to their demands.

With your reusable containers, you have developed such a solution. What are they made of?

Schulte: MealGood reusable containers are made of a bio-based plastic. When selecting the raw material, the requirements of the large-scale catering industry were important to us, as well as criteria concerning the origin of the raw material.

Since we have developed our range especially for the large-scale catering industry, our reusable products have to withstand, for example, an industrial dishwasher or a convection oven. We tested different materials during product development and decided on the bio-based plastic also because of these criteria. It was and is also important to us that the extraction of raw materials does not compete with food agriculture and that fair working conditions are respected.

What does the MealGood Cycle look like?

Schulte: We sell our product to our customers. After about 6 months we take the products back, our customers receive a restock and we take care of recycling the returned shells. The granulate is reused in other areas of application, while we are working in parallel to be allowed to use parts of the granulate ourselves.

Why "to be allowed"?

Schulte: With regard to further processing, the current situation is that we have not been on the market long enough to have enough returns that can be recycled. Economically and ecologically, this only makes sense for us from a larger quantity of over 300 kg. On the other hand, the path from post-consumer recyclate to reuse as food packaging is currently difficult in Germany.

What happens if a container is not disposed of correctly?

Schulte: In the worst case it ends up in incineration if it is not recognised in the sorting plants. We want to counteract this by taking it back and also give our customers the incentive to collect the products and return them to us in full by offering a discounted restock.

Which containers do you currently offer? Which ones are planned for the future?

Schulte: We currently have a one-piece bowl (great for stew, pasta, salad), a two-piece bowl (for e.g. curry sausage with chips) and a three-piece bowl (for e.g. potatoes, vegetables and meatball) in our range. Currently, we are planning bowls for side salads and desserts as well as two individual customer requests.

Why should customers opt for your solution?

Schulte: The advantages of MealGood are:

• the holistic cycle approach
• the development & production in Germany
• the fact that the containers are adapted to the sizes and requirements of large-scale catering establishments
• the aesthetically pleasing but also functional design (stackability, nestability)
• the possibility of individualisation, e.g. in terms of colour and logo printing.

The latter is especially nice when companies want to work together for more reusable food and support their employees in not creating disposable waste during their lunch break.

What do you think the (plastic) packaging industry of the future will look like? What concrete contribution are you making here?

Schulte: I have the hope that in the future we will ask ourselves more and more: "Is packaging necessary at this point right now or not?" We should do this both on the side of the industry and as end customers. In my vision, the packaging industry of the future will rely primarily on reuse – in other words, more reusable and more recycled materials. Hopefully, there will be more incentives for both, so that the choice of reusable and recycled materials becomes the standard.

This is where we are making our contribution with MealGood, by making disposable packaging in community catering redundant and acting as a complete cycle as the MealGood brand and promoting the use of recycled material at the end of the life of our products.

There are so many exciting developments and start-ups working on novel bio-based materials. I see them, together with the topic of reuse, far ahead in my vision.