In a new pilot project, two Finnish Burger King restaurants are using 100% bio-based reusable cups from Sulapac.
Reusable packaging could get a boost as the European Parliament has passed the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). For example, the legislation requires end distributors of beverages and takeaway food, to offer 10% reusable packaging products by 2030.
A recent example is a new pilot program by Finnish restaurant and catering company Restel, which has introduced reusable cups at some of the Burger King and Rax restaurants it operates in Finland.
The reusable cups are produced by Sulapac, a Finnish-based materials company firm that specializes in biological alternatives to virgin plastics. These cups are made from a 100% bio-based and biodegradable raw material from Sulapac. It is BPI certified industrial compost that can be mechanically and chemically recycled. This material has a carbon footprint of 0.57 kg CO2 equivalent/kg, including biochar, which is reduced by incorporating recycled biopolymers.
The material is available to all manufacturers and is a disposable solution that can be processed on existing injection molding lines. According to Sulapac, it also leaves no persistent microplastics behind during its life cycle.
Sulapac “Eco Cups” will be used in selected pilot restaurants for two months. Customers are instructed to return the cups to a designated collection tray after use. Each cup can be washed approximately 200 times before it reaches the end of its useful life, at which point Sulapac chemically recycles them into new cups.
