top of page

Recently I wrote a post on The Future of Reuse, but I never really addressed what is required, especially from government, in order for us to move at an accelerated pace from niche to ubiquity. I am genuinely convinced that Australia can virtually eliminate single use packaging from all commercial food and beverage outlets within two years from the legislative changes proposed below coming into effect. This would facilitate an industry structure that takes the best features of the highly successful Container Deposit Schemes (CDS) as inspiration, tailored to support the universal adoption of reuse.


According to research from the Minderoo Foundation, Australia is second only to Singapore in terms of global per capita generation of single use plastic waste. At the Circular Economy Summit held in Sydney in November, NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe and NSW EPA CEO Tony Chappel revealed that without new solutions for waste and recycling, Greater Sydney's landfill capacity could be exhausted within the next decade. I could go on and on with facts like this, but the bottom line is that change is needed, and the widespread implementation of a reuse based circular economy will be a large part of that change.


The food service sector has enthusiastically embraced the rise of single use items such as coffee cups, post-mix soft drink cups, plastic beer cups in a stadium and a whole range of single use take away food containers destined for landfill. The rise of home delivery services has dramatically increased our reliance on single use, whilst more and more food outlets are now even using single use packaging for dine in customers. Unchecked, this trend will only continue, whilst relying on forward thinking merchants or conscientious consumers to drive meaningful change in this area is fraught with problems. The New South Wales CDS didn't get to billions of single use drink containers returned each year for recycling just by relying on marketing campaigns and community goodwill - it took a combination of legislation to set up an industry structure and financial incentives in the form of deposits. A similar level of success in reuse will require a similar level of commitment from government.


In the text below where I talk about how to optimally structure reuse at scale, I borrow a term from the CDS called Network Operator. In a Victorian context this refers to Visy, Tomra Cleanaway and Return-It. As Network Operators each company is responsible for the network of return points in their designated region, including Reverse Vending Machines, over-the-counter drop offs and automated depots. They are each also responsible for ensuring the resources collected through the CDS are sent to appropriate destinations for recycling. In a reuse model, I'm using the term Network Operator to describe a company or consortia of companies that rents out packaging to F&B outlets, maintains a network of smart bins or other conveniently located collection points, has technology to pay out deposits when items are returned, and has trucks or vans on the road to move dirty containers from collection points, through their wash hub, and then back to F&B outlets that have signed up for their service.



In order to set the scene before detailing the Charopy proposal for how reuse at scale can be implemented, I'll outline some of the more general points that I believe anyone designing such a system should consider. In order to accelerate the elimination of single use packaging in commercial food service outlets, the following considerations will need to be taken into account, even if you disagree with the Charopy proposal that follows each point.

  • Choice for F&B outlets on whether or not to outsource their reuse obligations

    • A cafe or restaurant should be able to choose their own reusable packaging and choose to implement a model where their own customers come back to that store to return their packaging. This would cater to a cafe or restaurant that preferred this model over engaging with a larger commercial operator of collection and washing services.

    • Charopy proposal: Any single site F&B outlet that sells take away picked up by consumers at that outlet (not sold via a home delivery service), can choose to manage everything themselves if they choose, or outsource to a Network Operator. Any F&B outlet selling via a home delivery service would need to contract with a Network Operator given the inconvenience for consumers of having to return packing to the individual store otherwise.

  • No undue cost burden on small cafes and restaurants

    • The cost of implementing and running reuse should be broadly in line with the true lifecycle cost of serving in single use packaging destined for landfill today.

    • Charopy proposal: Competition between Network Operators and the option to bring reuse in-house will keep costs down for F&B outlets.

  • Defining in scope and out of scope packaging

    • In most of Australia, CDS containers are only those of between 150ml and 3 litre capacity. I assume this was set by NSW to accommodate Tomra machines as South Australia which pre dates the NSW scheme and has much less reliance on technology does include Yakult containers under 150ml. Choosing the widest range of realistic in scope dimensions of what packaging must be reusable would be required as part of a legislated reuse system.

    • Charopy proposal: All food and drink containers from 150 cubic centimetres to 2,000 cubic centimetres should be mandated for reuse. Small packaging like single use sauces should be exempt, partly due to the extra cost this would put on cafes and restaurants given the difficulty in making these reusable, plus the difficulty for technology given the need for QR Codes or RFID tags to be placed on each item. Larger items like pizza boxes would also be exempt given they are more likely to go into commingled recycling today and their shape makes them impractical for technology enabled collection points.

  • No commercial advantage to cafes and restaurants with lower return rates

    • In theory, a cafe could use very cheap packaging that was technically reusable, but offer it with little of no deposit knowing that much of it would not actually be returned for washing and reuse, thus being able to advertise a lower sticker price on items as opposed to competitors' products showing a higher sticker price with a more reasonable deposit that supported a genuine reuse system. For this reason, just as the CDS currently mandates a 10 cent deposit, a legislated fixed deposit amount on each item of packaging is far preferable to a system where each vendor can set their own deposit.

    • Charopy proposal: A minimum $2.00 deposit per item of packaging. If a meaningful deposit is not mandated then there is an ability for cafes to game the system and undermine both the confidence and effectiveness of this program. There may be scope to lower this deposit amount in a captive environment like a stadium or festival where price competition between vendors is not a factor, but any decision here would need to weigh up what negative impact this would have on return rates.

  • Convenience for consumers

    • A cafe may choose to manage the collection and washing of all of their take away packaging, but in case where they outsource this to a third party, and probably even in cases where they are selling via a third party home delivery service, consumers cannot be expected to travel out of their way just to get back their deposit. This is especially true given we are talking a single coffee cup at times and not a large collection of cans and bottles as is the typical case with the CDS. In Victoria the government mandated minimum coverage of one CDS collection point per 14,500 people, and a true reuse system almost certainly has to have significantly more collection points than a CDS.

    • Charopy proposal: To qualify as a Network Operator a minimum of one collection point per 5,000 people is recommended. Competition between Network Operators may see a much higher number being implemented, but at a minimum the reuse system should be around 3 times more convenient than the CDS in the state with the highest number of mandated collection points today.

  • Facilitating competition between players providing outsourced reuse services

    • Whilst the CDS today tends to work on exclusive geographic zones (North, East and West in Victoria, or all of NSW as a monopoly in that state), there is no reason why companies offering outsourced reuse services can't compete in overlapping geographies in order to drive down cost and increase service levels for F&B outlets and consumers.

    • Charopy recommendation: Monopolies are counterproductive for reuse, and any company meeting the requirements set by legislation should be able to easily certify as a Network Operator for a defined geography of their choosing. Fast food chains may choose to set themselves up as a Network Operator for their own packaging if they don't want to wash on site, or they may outsource to another Network Operator.

  • Fostering innovation within elements making up an outsourced reuse ecosystem

    • No country in the world has quite mastered reuse at scale to truly eliminate single use packaging across all commercial food service outlets, so if Australia is to be the leader here the system needs to allow small and large companies, both local and multi-national, to compete fairly and evenly in building out a model that will likely be followed by international markets in future.

    • Charopy Recommendation: Whilst a global standard for reuse QR codes exists from GS1 (and Charopy supports this today) the system must be set up in a flexible enough manner that so long as convenience for consumers and high levels of return are maintained (over 95% returns should be benchmark - this is higher than any Australian CDS today), then the technology and formats used should not be mandated and smaller local companies should be given equal standing with multi-nationals. Australia can be a world leader in reuse, and Australian technology could be exported globally once we have shown how a winning model operates.


From a Charopy perspective, our view is that whilst there are a number of well intentioned reuse trials underway in various parts of Australia today, relying on consumer pull alone is insufficient to get the levels of adoption we need to see in order to genuinely solve the problem of so much packaging ending up in landfill. Eventually government will need to play a more active role and this post is designed to help the people crafting such policies to think broadly about how the journey to a successful outcome can be accelerated.


The proposed reuse model presented above offers a clear path toward massively reducing single-use packaging and promoting circularity in the food service industry. By taking inspiration from the success of the CDS, we can create a system that benefits businesses, consumers, and the environment. For the model to work, collaboration between government, F&B outlets, and Network Operators is essential, as is a commitment to supporting circular economy principles through legislation, incentives, and consumer education. As we face the growing challenge of limited landfill capacity and increasing waste production, the importance of creating and implementing a successful reuse system at scale cannot be overstated.




Updated: Sep 17

Ever since we started Charopy the focus was on building technology to support improved recycling outcomes, but recently we launched a new initiative that goes one step further. This post is titled The Future of Reuse, partly because I am absolutely convinced that the Future is Reuse. In the past six months or so I have been amazed at how fast the conversation has shifted to reuse and how many people have been contacting Charopy looking for solutions. Whilst recycling is great, and we have come so far as a nation in recent years, reuse at scale really is the holy grail of circularity.


But herein lies the problem. If something is niche, then trust based systems that rely on hoping people will return their take away food and drink packaging for wash and reuse seem to work reasonably well in most cases; solving this at scale is a completely different issue. Given the rapidly growing interest in this topic, and the genuine desire for change, it is becoming pretty clear that government mandates will eventually play a role in how a reuse model becomes ubiquitous amongst coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and food delivery services. Why stop there - how about detergent bottles, shampoo bottles, liquid soap, vitamin bottles and supplement containers. All of these are perfect candidates for reuse at scale via a centralised collection and washing system, but technology will be critical in making these programs successful.


Recently in Sydney at the Australian Waste & Recycling Expo we launched a new offering in conjunction with Huskee (recently acquired by Biopak) that aims to solve many of the problems we see with other reuse systems that are unable to scale. Coffee cups are the first product, but they will be closely followed by take away food containers. Both the service offering and the technology are extremely flexible to cater to different models and different locations, but for cafes initially everything will be collected to be cleaned in centralised wash hubs and redistributed to individual cafes for reuse.



Probably the biggest benefit of the Charopy piece in all of this is how we have solved for shrinkage. We have heard of various existing reuse systems suffering loss rates of 30%, meaning that only 7 out of every 10 cups or containers sold are actually returned - when 30% of your product goes missing every time, it is starting to look not too dissimilar to a single use throwaway model. This is the point I referred to above about reuse systems based on trust being impossible to scale. We have various ways we can massively reduce shrinkage to a negligible number, and the model we implement will depend upon the specifics of your business.


In the cafe example Charopy technology links the cups to the purchaser when they leave the cafe and if the cup is not returned within seven days to one of the many dedicated Charopy bins then the consumer's card is charged a few dollars to cover the cost of the cup. This type of model works really well where consumers are repeat users of a cafe, precinct or home delivery service. Immediately after they return their item to one of the numerous Charopy bins nearby, the consumer receives a push message to their phone informing them that their return has been recorded. At the same time the bin updates a remote database so our partners know how full the bin is and exactly what items are contained within it. Naturally the bin only opens for the correct items and rejects anything that is ineligible. There are multiple layers of security to ensure the integrity of this system at all touch points.


A minor variation on this app based model would be able to solve the massive problem of all the landfill that results from home delivery services by moving them to a reuse system. Depending upon how the scheme was implemented, a no deposit system would work because the delivery app always knows who is getting the food packaging and that app already has the consumer's card on file for charging purposes. This would mean a simple integration between the food delivery app and the Charopy system. In this model the consumer could return the containers to Charopy enabled collection points around the city, but many people would prefer to give them to the driver of their next delivery as a tip. In a deposit model just handing them to the driver would suffice, but in a no deposit model the driver would scan each container from a previous delivery on their phone before leaving the home. Given that this would mean extra income for drivers, this small extra task is expected to be embraced. The beauty of this model is that it solves a big problem with food delivery packaging causing landfill, it is seamless for the consumer, it increases delivery driver incomes, and it encourages people to buy more often on the food delivery app if they don't want to return the containers themselves.


Where we would be most likely to modify this app based model is in a stadium, airport or possibly at a music festival where people are less likely to want to download an app in order to purchase a drink. That said, there is a strong case for large venues wanting more of their patrons downloading their own branded app to white label the technology and use it as a way for their their patrons to get increased utility from an existing app - whilst also allowing anonymous purchase and return for other patrons at that venue.


In cases where a venue wants to implement anonymous reuse there is a lot we can learn from the container deposit scheme. By building a small deposit into the purchase price of a product then return is incentivised by the optional refunding of that deposit - this really drives higher return rates as we can set up a system where the deposit goes to charity if the purchaser doesn't care about it; or other people can claim the item and get the deposit into their account if they return cups and food containers that are left lying around. This has the added benefit of creating less work for cleaners at a venue, whilst ensuring a very high return rate of reusables.


There is another model we support that can operate as stand alone, or it can be combined with any of the methods outlined above - some call it the Lottery Model. Whilst our bins have already been able to do this with regular bar codes, that functionality is quite basic compared to what is possible with serialised QR codes in a reuse system. Think of it as using gamification to incentivize returns. Ask yourself, would you be more motivated to perform a simple action for 50 cents or perform that same simple task for a one in a thousand chance to win $500? I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of people would be more motivated by the latter. The fact that so many lottery tickets are sold despite the expected value of the ticket frequently being less than 20% of the face value of that prize draw entry tends to support this. I call it "the psychology of return" and if you understand it you can then use this principle to drive even higher return rates within your reuse system.


Whichever model is best for your venue, one important thing that we have designed into our technology is that the barista or barman or whomever is serving and taking payment should not have extra tasks added to their workflow; the speed of the transaction at the point of sale should not be impacted in any way. Likewise, when returning your reusable item to a Charopy bin the process needs to be super fast, queues should not be forming at return points, and the technology should be resilient so that it still functions smoothly even if they bin loses connectivity to the internet via a wifi or cellular network being down. The return points should be cheap enough to be ubiquitious and should run on battery or solar power when mains power is not available. A good solution should also be globally applicable using standard GS1 reuse formats for QR codes that contain strong encryption to ensure compliance and safeguard integrity. These were all technical challenges that the team at Charopy managed to solve during the design and development phase of our reuse technology.


The scope for reuse to revolutionise how we think about circularity goes well beyond the food service industry. Think about some of the other containers we use in our everyday lives that could benefit from a more sustainable model. What about a brand or multiple brands of shampoos, laundy detergents, soap dispensers, vitamin and supplement containers, dishwashing detergents and maybe even the trays that hold pre packaged fresh produce? Why can't they be returned to the place of purchase to be collected, washed, returned to suppliers, refilled and then put back on supermarket shelves? Up until now the answer may have been that the technology was not ready to support such a model, but that is no longer the case. Charopy technology could even link the purchase and return of these products to a retailer loyalty scheme, giving retailers an even deeper insight into their customers whilst also making a huge positive impact on the steps to a truly circular economy.


I'm not sure when legislation and government mandates will eventually force complianace in this space, but why wait for that when the solution to support a scalable reuse system is already here. It will be interesting to watch which brands take the lead, and who scambles to catch up later.


The new and improved food court at Westfield Knox in Melbourne has been live since late last year and whilst the final product looks really nice and is delivering great results, this post is also about the process.



Charopy had been engaged with with Scentre Group Head Office for some time when we were contacted by their Head of Sustainability about a planned renovation at Knox. Whilst Charopy works with a lot of clients on retrofitting our technology to existing bins, it is great to be contacted at the inception of a new project to ensure our solution is an integrated part of the design and not just an afterthought. This allows the team at Charopy to give the design team our learnings on best practice when it comes to integrating a Container Deposit Scheme (CDS) collection within a shopping centre environment, or any other location for that matter.


From that initial request we ended up talking to the Scentre Group design team, the construction team at Scentre Group and their contractors at BCI Furniture. In this case our standard panel was exactly what they were after. Cost effective, elegant, and easy to service. We discussed how some shopping centres are using digital screen content from Charopy to maximise engagement, but in this case the client wanted to launch with something more simple, whilst keeping space above the bin for a future digital screen implementation if desired.



There are so many places where Charopy technology makes sense, but food courts may be the most obvious of all. You have significant purchase, consumption and disposal of single use drink containers, you have dwell time as people are seated and can be made more aware of your recycling initiatives, and you have the very real problem of traditional commingled bins frequently ending up in general waste and destined for landfill due to contamination. On top of this, you are paying more in waste removal by not effectively segregating CDS, plus you are missing out on the 10c deposit from the thousands of containers sold within your shopping centre. Major companies reporting annually on their sustainability targets is just one more reason to implement a CDS stream within a food court, but solving for contamination has traditionally been the biggest hurdle to moving forward on this.



Westfield Knox has joined a growing number of shopping centres around Australia to solve the problem of recycling bin contamination with the help of Charopy. Their implementation is not only highly functional, but looks absolutely amazing too.

Charopy.png

Copyright 2024 Charopy Pty Ltd

bottom of page